Journalist
Candice Kim김혜준
candicekim1121@ajupress.com
ReporterSamsung Electronics, SK hynix, LG Electronics, Olive Young, Musinsa & Semiconductor, K-Beauty
Candice Kim is a dedicated business and technology reporter specializing in the intersection of high-tech innovation and fast-paced consumer trends. Her core beats span the semiconductor, IT, cosmetics, and retail sectors, where she provides in-depth coverage of industry titans including Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and LG Electronics, alongside leading consumer brands like Olive Young and Musinsa. Whether analyzing complex silicon supply chains or tracking the latest shifts in beauty and fashion retail, Candice is committed to delivering sharp, accurate reporting that keeps readers informed on the forces shaping today's most dynamic markets.
"Connecting the dots from silicon chips to consumer shifts."
Latest by Candice Kim
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SK hynix clears nearly $40 bn fab budget despite glut worries SEOUL, August 07 (AJP) -SK hynix is pressing ahead with a 54.3 trillion won ($38 billion) expansion of its memory production empire even as its shares have more than halved from their June highs amid oversupply and peak concerns, committing capital equivalent to about 45 percent of its shareholders' equity to new fabs in Yongin and Cheongju. The world's leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory said Friday that its board approved 35.2 trillion won for construction of its second fab, or Y2, at the Yongin semiconductor cluster and another 19.1 trillion won for the M17 fab in Cheongju. The two projects amount to roughly 45 percent of SK hynix's shareholders' equity of 120.7 trillion won. The Yongin investment alone represents 29.19 percent. The scale of the bet stands in sharp contrast to the market's recent retreat from the chipmaker. SK hynix closed Friday at 1,422,000 won, down about 17 percent from a week earlier and 52.4 percent from its record 2,987,000 won reached on June 25. The selloff has come despite unprecedented earnings from the AI memory boom. SK hynix reported a record operating profit of 60.54 trillion won in the second quarter, up 557.2 percent from a year earlier, while first-half operating profit approached 100 trillion won. The 54.3 trillion won earmarked for the two new fabs alone is equivalent to almost 90 percent of its entire second-quarter operating profit. SK hynix nevertheless appears unwilling to slow its capacity race. "In the AI era, technological competitiveness alone is not enough, and the ability to supply the volume customers need when they need it is itself competitiveness," the company said. The company said the investment followed a detailed review of customers' long-term demand as AI infrastructure drives consumption of HBM and other advanced memory. Yongin Y2 will be the second of four fabs planned at the semiconductor cluster south of Seoul and will become a major production base for next-generation DRAM, including HBM. The facility will have a total floor area of about 1.13 million square meters. Construction is scheduled to begin in July next year, with its first clean room opening in June 2029. Investment will be carried out through October 2031 and includes a support building and an integrated research and development center for testing and analyzing new products. SK hynix is already building Y1, the first Yongin fab, with its first clean room scheduled to open in February next year. The company has sharply accelerated the broader project, aiming to complete all four Yongin fabs by 2033, 12 years earlier than its previous 2045 target. Power and water infrastructure needed through the operation of Y2 is already about 99 percent complete. The 19.1 trillion won M17 project in Cheongju will expand SK hynix's NAND production base. Construction is scheduled to start in February next year, with its first clean room opening in December 2028. Investment will run through April 2031. Cheongju already houses the company's M11, M12 and M15 NAND fabs, giving SK hynix existing land, electricity and water infrastructure that could shorten construction and improve production efficiency. The projects are part of the investment strategy unveiled in June under which SK hynix plans to pour 600 trillion won into the Yongin semiconductor cluster and another 100 trillion won into expanding its Cheongju production base. The company plans to secure the physical production infrastructure first and then phase in clean-room expansion and equipment according to actual demand. At the same time, the cash windfall is beginning to reach shareholders. SK hynix separately declared a quarterly cash dividend of 375 won per common share, totaling 273.3 billion won, with Aug. 31 set as the record date. More significantly, the company said it is actively reviewing additional shareholder-return measures and plans to finalize and announce them during the third quarter, bringing forward an earlier pledge to unveil a new shareholder-return policy by year-end. With cash holdings swollen by record first-half earnings, market attention is now turning to whether SK hynix will pair its enormous capacity push with a larger-than-expected return of capital to shareholders bruised by the stock's 52 percent retreat from its peak. AJP Takeaways SK hynix approved 54.3 trillion won ($38 billion) for new fabs in Yongin and Cheongju, pressing ahead with capacity expansion despite growing memory glut concerns. The spending equals about 45 percent of shareholders’ equity, underscoring the scale of its bet on sustained AI-driven memory demand. Yongin Y2 will focus on next-generation DRAM including HBM, while Cheongju M17 will expand NAND production capacity. The investment comes even as SK hynix shares have fallen more than 52 percent from their June 25 peak and 17 percent over the past week. Record earnings are giving SK hynix room to invest aggressively while also preparing additional shareholder-return measures in the third quarter. 2026-08-07 16:51:32 -
Samsung tests global appetite for pricier Galaxy foldables and wearables SEOUL, August 06 (AJP) -Samsung Electronics rolled out its latest Galaxy foldable smartphones and smartwatches worldwide on Thursday, betting strong pre-orders can overcome sticker shock as soaring memory and component costs push flagship handset prices to new highs and weigh on global smartphone demand. The world's largest smartphone maker said the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold8, Galaxy Z Flip8, Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Galaxy Watch9 will go on sale from Aug. 7 in major markets before expanding to 106 countries. The launch follows a robust pre-order campaign that has raised expectations the momentum will spill over to companion devices such as Galaxy smartwatches, reinforcing Samsung's strategy of selling AI-powered products as an integrated ecosystem rather than standalone gadgets. Samsung said global pre-orders for the Galaxy Z Fold8 series and Flip8 rose more than 30 percent from the previous generation, suggesting foldable smartphones are continuing to move into the mainstream despite a sluggish global handset market. The strongest demand came from younger buyers. Among Samsung.com's customers aged 15 to 34, exclusive online colors such as Green Shadow for the Fold8 Ultra, Pistachio for the Fold8 and Mint for the Flip8 proved the most popular. Across all buyers, Graphite led orders for the Fold8 Ultra and Fold8, while Pink topped pre-orders for the Flip8. The new lineup marks Samsung's broadest foldable portfolio yet, splitting the category into three distinct products aimed at different users. The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra targets power users with an 8-inch main display, a 200-megapixel primary camera, a 5,000mAh battery and a slimmer body measuring 4.1 millimeters when unfolded. Samsung said the device combines flagship camera capabilities with AI-powered multitasking features for productivity and content creation. The standard Galaxy Z Fold8 focuses on portability, weighing 201 grams, Samsung's lightest foldable book-style smartphone to date, while introducing a redesigned display ratio intended to improve both cover-screen usability and immersive viewing on the main display. The Galaxy Z Flip8, Samsung's thinnest clamshell foldable yet, features an upgraded FlexWindow cover display, AI-powered personalized information and a 50-megapixel camera designed for hands-free photography and video recording. Samsung also expanded its wearable lineup with the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Galaxy Watch9, both powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear Elite platform and equipped with new health-monitoring features including cardiovascular tracking, fitness analysis and sleep management. The company is betting that tighter integration between smartphones, watches and Google's AI services will encourage consumers to buy multiple Galaxy devices rather than upgrade individual products. Customers purchasing the new foldables will receive a six-month subscription to Google AI Pro with 5 terabytes of cloud storage, while Samsung also upgraded its Smart Switch software to simplify migration from Apple's iPhone, including wireless transfers of passwords, eSIM information and call history. The launch comes as Samsung seeks to extend its lead in foldable smartphones, a segment it pioneered commercially but now faces increasing competition from Chinese rivals including Huawei, Honor and Xiaomi. Strong early orders for the latest Galaxy Z series could help Samsung maintain momentum in the premium smartphone market through the second half of the year while lifting sales of higher-margin accessories such as Galaxy Watch devices. 2026-08-06 09:17:18 -
Samsung and SK hynix CEOs face criminal complains over bonus SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) -The chief executives of South Korea's two dominant memory chipmakers are facing criminal complaints after a shareholder activist group accused them of breaching their fiduciary duties by agreeing to AI-era performance bonus schemes that could pay chip-related workers hundreds of millions of won. The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency has assigned the complaints against Samsung Electronics co-CEOs Jun Young-hyun and Roh Tae-moon, and SK hynix Chief Executive Kwak Noh-jung, to its Investigation Units 1 and 2, respectively, the Korea Shareholders Movement Headquarters said Wednesday. The complaints, filed with the National Office of Investigation on July 22, allege breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes. The shareholder group argues the executives failed to adequately review the legality of labor agreements that linked employee compensation to company performance, allowing corporate assets to be committed through collective bargaining rather than shareholder approval. At the center of the dispute is a new generation of profit-sharing schemes adopted as South Korea's memory makers post record earnings from the global artificial intelligence boom. The activists contend that pre-allocating a fixed share of operating profit to employee bonuses amounts to an unlawful transfer of corporate assets that should require a shareholder vote, not a negotiation between management and labor unions. The group said it filed a separate complaint the same day with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials against Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon, accusing him of abuse of authority and coercion for mediating the tentative Samsung labor agreement in May. The labor ministry has not publicly responded to either set of allegations. The complaints mark the latest escalation in an increasingly bitter fight over who should benefit from South Korea's AI-driven semiconductor windfall — shareholders or employees. The dispute traces back to May, when Samsung Electronics narrowly avoided its first large-scale semiconductor strike, reaching a tentative wage agreement with its labor union roughly 30 minutes before a planned walkout. The deal introduced a profit-linked bonus system — a special semiconductor performance bonus equivalent to 10.5 percent of business performance earnings — echoing a similar structure already in place at SK hynix, which allocates 10 percent of its semiconductor division's operating profit to an employee bonus pool. Under the agreements, semiconductor employees could receive bonuses worth hundreds of millions of won if the memory divisions continue posting record profits driven by soaring demand for high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI servers. Shareholder groups condemned the deals immediately, arguing management had effectively committed future profits without investor consent and permanently raised labor costs at shareholders' expense. The controversy has unfolded against a backdrop of unprecedented profitability. Samsung's Device Solutions semiconductor division posted an operating margin of about 70 percent in the second quarter, while SK hynix recorded an operating margin of roughly 76 percent as AI memory demand continued to surge. Neither Samsung Electronics nor SK hynix has publicly commented on the latest criminal complaints. The filing of a criminal complaint does not imply wrongdoing and does not automatically lead to prosecution. But the assignment of the cases to dedicated police investigators marks the first formal criminal investigation into South Korea's increasingly contentious debate over how the gains from the AI semiconductor boom should be divided between labor and capital. AJP Takeaway What: Police opened formal probes into complaints accusing Samsung Electronics co-CEOs Jun Young-hyun and Roh Tae-moon, and SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung, of breach of trust over profit-linked employee bonuses; Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon faces a separate abuse-of-authority complaint. When: Filed July 22, 2026; assigned to Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency units as of Aug. 5. Core dispute: Whether tying bonuses to a fixed share of operating profit (10.5% at Samsung, 10% at SK hynix) required shareholder approval rather than union negotiation. Context: Comes as Samsung's DS division and SK hynix post Q2 operating margins of roughly 70% and 76%, respectively, amid the AI memory boom. 2026-08-05 11:53:32 -
Samsung, SK hynix wage next battle for AI memory leadership at FMS SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics and SK hynix used the same stage at the Future of Memory and Storage (FMS) conference in Santa Clara this week to make two different arguments for who will shape artificial intelligence's next memory era, underscoring how South Korea's chip champions are now competing as much over future architecture as today's products. The rivalry matters well beyond the two companies. Together, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix dominate the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market that has become one of the AI industry's most closely watched supply chains, making their technology roadmaps a barometer for where AI infrastructure is heading next. Samsung's keynote looked furthest ahead. The company unveiled concept models for zHBM, a new architecture that stacks high-bandwidth memory directly on top of AI accelerators rather than alongside them, a configuration Samsung says could eventually deliver roughly eight times the performance of HBM5 while improving power efficiency and memory density. It also introduced zNAND-O, an edge-AI NAND architecture, and revealed V10 Bonding V-NAND, the industry's first wafer-bonded NAND design exceeding 400 layers. None of the technologies carries a commercialization timetable, underscoring Samsung's emphasis on defining the next generation of AI memory architecture rather than near-term product launches. The broader roadmap nevertheless reinforced Samsung's ambition to remain an end-to-end AI memory supplier. The company highlighted HBM4E, HBM5, LPDDR5X-PIM and enterprise SSDs while stressing its position as an integrated device manufacturer spanning memory, foundry and advanced packaging. SK hynix, by contrast, arrived with technologies closer to deployment. The company and SanDisk released the industry's first open specifications for High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), a new memory tier designed to bridge the gap between ultra-fast HBM and conventional solid-state drives as AI inference increasingly requires terabyte-scale memory capacity. Published through the Open Compute Project (OCP) consortium, the specifications establish an open standard already backed by Google and AI chip startup Tenstorrent, aiming to accelerate adoption across GPU and CPU platforms. Rather than replacing HBM, HBF is designed to complement it by providing significantly larger memory capacity at far lower cost, addressing one of the biggest bottlenecks facing large-scale AI inference and agentic AI systems. SK hynix also showcased its 375-layer V10 4D NAND, with mass production of enterprise SSDs based on the technology scheduled for early 2027, reinforcing its strategy of bringing next-generation storage products to market quickly. Samsung focused on defining where AI system architecture could evolve beyond today's HBM, using concept technologies to position itself at the center of future memory design, whereas SK hynix concentrated on extending its leadership in commercial AI memory by advancing technologies already moving toward industry adoption through open standards and near-term production. FMS is less a product launch event than a forum where semiconductor companies stake out technology roadmaps years before widespread deployment. Both companies choosing the same conference to unveil competing visions beyond conventional HBM signals an increasingly strategic contest over who will define the next phase of AI infrastructure after today's HBM boom. Samsung's vision centers on vertically integrating memory and compute into increasingly three-dimensional architectures. SK hynix is betting the next bottleneck will be AI inference, requiring an entirely new tier of memory between HBM and storage. For now, the two companies are pursuing different routes toward the same goal: becoming the indispensable memory supplier for the AI industry's next decade. AJP Takeaways: — Samsung and SK hynix presented competing AI memory roadmaps at the Future of Memory and Storage (FMS) conference in Santa Clara, held the week of August 3-7, 2026. — Samsung unveiled concept-stage technologies with no commercialization date: zHBM (memory stacked directly on AI accelerators, claimed up to 8x HBM5 performance), zNAND-O for edge AI, and V10 Bonding V-NAND, the first wafer-bonded NAND exceeding 400 layers. — SK hynix and SanDisk published the industry's first open specifications for High Bandwidth Flash (HBF) through the Open Compute Project, backed by Google and Tenstorrent; HBF is designed to sit between HBM and SSDs for terabyte-scale AI inference workloads. — SK hynix's 375-layer V10 4D NAND enterprise SSDs are scheduled for mass production in early 2027. — The split reflects two strategies: Samsung is positioning itself around future 3D memory-compute architecture, while SK hynix is extending its lead in memory already moving toward open-standard, near-term commercial adoption. 2026-08-05 10:22:41 -
AI windfall splits One-Samsung as DX workers plan protest rally SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics' record first-half earnings have exposed an unusual corporate paradox: the semiconductor division generated almost all of the company's profits, but in doing so widened an internal pay gap that is now splintering the company's long-held "One Samsung" culture. Samsung's Device Solutions (DS) semiconductor division earned 146.7 trillion won ($106 billion) in operating profit during the first half, dwarfing the 3.8 trillion won generated by the Device eXperience (DX) division, which houses its smartphone, television and home appliance businesses. The disparity has translated into sharply different employee compensation, fueling resentment among workers in the DX division whose profitability has been squeezed partly by the soaring memory chip prices that enriched their semiconductor counterparts. Although Samsung recently reached a compensation agreement with unions representing semiconductor employees, workers in the DX division have rejected a similar settlement and plan a large-scale rally outside the company's Seocho headquarters on Aug. 21. The unrest follows a closely watched labor victory for the DS division last month. After weeks of escalating tensions and a high-profile protest at Samsung's Hwaseong semiconductor campus, management agreed to provide special performance bonuses to chip employees. The agreement helped avert a prolonged strike that could have disrupted global memory chip supplies, but it immediately triggered backlash from employees in the DX division, who argue they have been treated unfairly despite belonging to the same company. Leading the protest is the Samsung Electronics Company Union (SECU), better known as Donghaeng, whose membership is concentrated in the DX business. The union said it will stage a rally at Samsung's Seocho headquarters on Aug. 21 under the slogan, "Same company, same rights." The slogan deliberately echoes chants heard during the semiconductor workers' protests in Hwaseong, underscoring how the successful tactics used by DS employees are now being adopted by another part of Samsung. "Management has remained completely silent despite repeated official requests from the union," a SECU representative said in explaining the decision to escalate the dispute to the company's headquarters. The dispute is exposing what labor observers describe as a new kind of conflict inside Samsung—not between labor and management, but between different groups of employees whose fortunes have increasingly diverged as the company's businesses move in opposite directions. The gap reflects Samsung's changing earnings structure. While demand for artificial intelligence memory chips has produced record profitability for the semiconductor business, the smartphone and consumer electronics division has faced margin pressure from weaker consumer demand and higher component costs, including expensive memory chips supplied internally. The widening divide has also fractured Samsung's labor movement. SECU has increasingly distanced itself from Samsung's umbrella union, arguing that DX employees' interests were being overshadowed by the semiconductor division's dominant bargaining position. By pursuing separate negotiations, the union believes it can press more aggressively for compensation reflecting the contributions of non-chip businesses. The umbrella union has declined to participate in the upcoming Seocho rally, saying it has no official position on the demonstration, highlighting the growing fragmentation within Samsung's labor organizations. For Samsung management, the dispute presents a delicate balancing act. Conceding to DX employees risks undermining the costly peace agreement recently reached with semiconductor workers, while refusing their demands could deepen internal divisions at a time when the company is relying more than ever on its AI-driven chip business. 2026-08-04 13:50:09 -
Samsung's Galaxy Z8 shatters 7-year pre-order record SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - South Koreans are snapping up Samsung Electronics’ latest foldable phones at a blistering pace of 140 units per minute, shattering a seven-year pre-order record and proving that the foldable form factor has officially shed its novelty status to become a mainstream must-have. Over a seven-day pre-order window that wrapped up on Monday, the tech giant racked up a staggering 1.44 million domestic sales for its Galaxy Z8 series, comprising the Z Fold8, Z Fold8 Ultra, and Z Flip8. This blowout performance marks the highest pre-order volume in the entire history of the Galaxy franchise, finally dethroning the venerable Galaxy Note 10, which moved 1.38 million units over 11 days back in August 2019. The new foldables also easily eclipsed the early year momentum of the Galaxy S26 series, which saw 1.35 million pre-orders, and blew past the 1.04 million mark set by last year's Z Fold7 and Z Flip7. The undisputed heavyweight champion of this lineup is the Galaxy Z Fold8, which single-handedly drove the frenzy by accounting for 70 percent of all pre-orders. Samsung hit the sweet spot for content junkies by introducing a new "passport-like" 4:3 aspect ratio on its 7.6-inch main screen, a strategic pivot from the taller, narrower screens of previous generations that dramatically reduces black bars during video playback. Paired with a 5.5-inch cover screen, the device also tackles the foldable market's most notorious Achilles' heel: the screen crease. By deploying a first-of-its-kind "Flex Titanium" technology—which fuses a titanium alloy film with a reinforced titanium plate—Samsung claims to have virtually ironed out the fold while significantly boosting the device's overall durability. This design overhaul is not just winning over tech purists; it's aggressively reshaping Samsung's demographic reach. The company attributed the series' runaway success to surging interest from Millennials and Gen Z, alongside a massive influx of female customers. Shoppers in their teens to 30s made up a full 50 percent of all pre-orders on Samsung.com, and the number of young female buyers springing for the Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra more than doubled compared to its predecessor. Industry watchers suggest that the wider, more proportional 4:3 screen ratio and sleek design cues successfully courted a female demographic that previously skewed away from the bulkier Fold lineup. Aesthetically, consumers gravitated toward Cream and Graphite for the standard Fold8, while Ultra buyers favored Graphite and Violet Shadow. Flip8 fans leaned into Pink and Cream, with Samsung-exclusive shades like Pistachio and Mint also driving heavy online traffic. Beneath the hardware appeal, Samsung orchestrated a masterclass in aggressive promotional bundling to seal the deal amid a tough global economic climate. Staring down widespread "chipflation," the company maintained competitive pricing and dangled irresistible perks, most notably a "Double Storage" upgrade that bumped 256GB buyers up to 512GB at no extra cost. When paired with the enhanced "New Galaxy AI Subscription Club," the incentives became too good to pass up—one in two customers buying unlocked models on Samsung.com signed up for the service, which guarantees up to 50 percent of the 512GB model's residual value upon trade-in after one year. The company also rolled out a tailored "Flip Youth Subscription" for Z Flip8 buyers, bundling the trade-in guarantee with language learning app vouchers. With early activations kicking off Tuesday for domestic pre-order customers, Samsung is now preparing to take this momentum global, with the Z8 series slated for a rolling release across more than 100 countries starting August 7. 2026-08-04 12:08:57 -
SK hynix and SanDisk unveil HBF Blueprint for AI terabyte era SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - The artificial intelligence boom has a voracious appetite for memory, and the industry’s leading architects just released a new blueprint to keep it fed. On Tuesday, SK hynix and SanDisk published the first open standard specifications for High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), officially firing the starting gun on a new structural race designed to cure the massive data bottlenecks threatening real-world AI deployment. As the industry transitions from training large-scale models to deploying them for everyday inference, the massive capacity required to process elongated context windows has exposed the physical and economic limits of existing High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). Released through the Open Compute Project (OCP) just six months after the companies formed their standardization consortium, the new HBF specifications define a hybrid approach to bridge this gap. The standards outline configurations for 8-high and 16-high NAND die stacks, achieving maximum capacities of 512 gigabytes (GB). Bandwidth is categorized into three tiers, ranging from 0.4 terabytes per second (TB/s) up to 3.0 TB/s. Crucially, the consortium adopted Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) as the physical connection standard. This open-standard interface ensures HBF can be seamlessly integrated with various GPUs and CPUs, regardless of the processor's manufacturer. The HBF ecosystem is already gaining heavyweight support, with Google and AI chip startup Tenstorrent officially joining the consortium to accelerate the technology’s market adoption and refine its technical maturity. This rapidly expanding alliance underscores a critical pivot in how silicon giants are approaching the next phase of AI computing. The urgency behind HBF stems from the explosive demands of inference workloads and the rise of "Agentic AI"—advanced systems that autonomously set goals, plan, and execute tasks. Unlike initial model training, real-time inference relies heavily on key-value (KV) caches to store intermediate data. As models process exponentially larger inputs, these caches can easily push into the terabyte range per system. While HBM acts as ultra-fast working memory directly attached to GPUs, scaling it to meet terabyte-level capacity is prohibitively expensive. To solve this, HBF introduces a vital middle layer between HBM and traditional solid-state drives (SSDs). By leveraging NAND flash, HBF sacrifices a fraction of DRAM's speed to provide massive, cost-effective capacity closely coupled with the compute unit. "As AI utilization expands rapidly, a comprehensive redesign of the entire data processing structure is required," Chun-sung Kim, Head of Solution Development at SK hynix, said ahead of his FMS 2026 keynote address. "Through HBF, we will expand the boundaries between memory and storage and contribute to a new architecture that enhances overall system efficiency." Joung-ho Kim, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) widely recognized as the "father of HBM," noted that the release of an open standard solidifies the industry's inevitable shift toward capacity-driven performance. "Once decoding begins during AI inference, throughput becomes entirely memory-bound," Prof. Kim told AJP. "HBM defined the last decade of AI training, but the reality of real-world deployment requires a tiered memory architecture. Establishing an open HBF standard now is the starting gun for the next decade of AI infrastructure." SK hynix executives are heavily emphasizing this multi-layered approach throughout FMS 2026. On Thursday, SK hynix, Google DeepMind, and SanDisk will host a joint panel titled "Breaking the Memory Wall with High Bandwidth Flash" to discuss this architectural restructuring across the broader AI ecosystem. Alongside the HBF push, SK hynix also showcased its 10th-generation (V10) 375-layer 4D NAND at the FMS exhibition booth. Delivering a 2.5-fold improvement in power-to-performance ratio compared to the previous generation, the new NAND is optimized for the power-hungry data centers driving the AI boom. The company plans to begin mass production of high-performance enterprise SSDs based on the V10 technology early next year to cement its leadership in the AI storage market. 2026-08-04 11:53:34 -
TSMC's Kumamoto chip hub returns to full speed after quake SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has restored normal operations at its first semiconductor plant in Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture after a powerful earthquake temporarily halted production last week, easing concerns over potential supply disruptions in one of Japan's key chipmaking hubs. TSMC said its Kumamoto Fab 1 resumed full production on Sunday after suspending manufacturing on July 28 to inspect and recalibrate equipment following a magnitude-7.1 earthquake. Structural inspections confirmed the building's safety, although additional checks on production equipment required several days to complete. Immediately after the quake, TSMC said in a statement that "post-earthquake structural inspections have been completed, confirming that the structures are safe and operations are gradually resuming," while noting that detailed equipment inspections and impact assessments were continuing. Construction of the company's second Kumamoto fab has also resumed after being temporarily paused as a precaution against aftershocks, according to the company. TSMC separately said it would donate 250 million yen ($1.6 million) to support earthquake relief efforts in Kumamoto. The recovery has proceeded considerably faster than after the devastating 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes, when semiconductor production in the region took months to fully recover. Japanese media attributed the quicker restart to stronger earthquake-resistant facilities and improved business continuity planning adopted by chipmakers following the 2016 disaster. Other semiconductor manufacturers are also restoring operations. Tokyo Electron resumed production at two factories in Kumamoto on Aug. 3, while Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing began a phased restart of its Kumamoto Technology Center on Monday with plans to return to normal operations by mid-August. Renesas Electronics is also expected to resume operations at its Kumamoto plant on Tuesday. 2026-08-04 10:12:13 -
Samsung's latest foldables head into final hours of preorders SEOUL, August 03 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics' latest foldable smartphones entered the final day of preorders on Monday, with promotional offers set to expire as the company looks to build on expectations that its newest lineup could surpass the previous generation's record launch. Samsung said customers visiting Samsung Stores and other retail outlets on the final day of preorders showed strong interest in the new devices' design and features, while many inquired about purchase benefits and trade-in options. The company has offered a "Double Storage" promotion, upgrading buyers of 256GB models to 512GB versions at no additional cost during the preorder period. Samsung said interest has been particularly strong among consumers in their teens and 20s as well as users switching from rival smartphone brands, citing improved cross-platform compatibility and demand for higher-capacity devices for photo and video use. Industry watchers expect preorder sales of the new foldable lineup could surpass the previous generation's record of 1.04 million units, although Samsung has not disclosed official preorder figures. 2026-08-03 16:19:09 -
HBM war enters new phase as Samsung chases SK hynix SEOUL, August 03 (AJP) - SK hynix remained the clear leader in the game-changing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market through the first half, but the second half could mark the beginning of a new phase as Samsung Electronics pushes aggressively to close the gap with next-generation HBM4. The rivalry came into sharper focus following the two companies' second-quarter earnings calls on July 29 and July 30, when South Korea's two memory giants used their outlook presentations to lay out competing visions for the next stage of the AI memory race. Samsung said third-quarter HBM4 revenue is expected to more than triple from the previous quarter and projected that its HBM market share would eventually approach its overall DRAM market position. The company also highlighted long-term supply agreements with major hyperscale cloud operators and a diversified customer base, signaling confidence that it can steadily narrow the gap with the market leader. SK hynix countered that leadership in HBM depends on far more than bringing the newest product to market. The company argued that its edge stems from manufacturing know-how accumulated across multiple HBM generations, pointing to production yields, product quality and customer trust as competitive advantages that cannot be replicated overnight. It said it had already begun mass shipments of HBM4 and secured long-term supply agreements with about 10 customers, including leading AI chipmakers. The exchange comes as the world's largest cloud service providers continue to ramp up spending on AI infrastructure, reinforcing expectations that demand for advanced memory will remain robust for years. Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta all raised capital expenditure plans following second-quarter earnings, while Amazon warned supply constraints are likely to persist into next year despite record investment. Samsung has separately forecast that the AI-driven memory shortage could extend through 2028. The market data illustrate two distinct competitive landscapes. According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung held a 38 percent share of the global DRAM market by revenue in the first quarter, a modest lead over SK hynix's 29 percent. The picture is markedly different in AI memory. SK hynix commanded a 58 percent share of the HBM market, nearly three times Samsung's 21 percent, underscoring its dominant position in the industry's fastest-growing and most profitable segment. Industry pricing trends suggest the favorable environment is unlikely to fade anytime soon. TrendForce expects PC DRAM contract prices to rise another 15 percent to 20 percent in the third quarter as memory makers shift more production capacity toward higher-margin server chips to meet AI demand from hyperscale cloud providers. NAND flash prices have also continued climbing, indicating that tight supply conditions are extending beyond HBM into the broader memory market. Nvidia's supplier decisions are now doing as much to shape the rivalry as either company's own roadmap. On June 5, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confirmed that Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron had all passed certification to supply HBM4 for the Vera Rubin AI accelerator platform, ending months of speculation over which suppliers would qualify. Certification hasn't meant equal allocation: supply-chain analysts estimate SK hynix holds roughly 60–70 percent of Vera Rubin HBM4 volume, with Samsung capturing about 25–30 percent and Micron supplying the remainder. TrendForce separately projects SK hynix will still lead global HBM bit output with a 50 percent share in 2026, down from 59 percent in 2025, while Samsung's share climbs from 20 percent to 28 percent — a trajectory that lines up with the narrowing-gap narrative Samsung pressed in its earnings call. Samsung and SK hynix are also making different capacity bets to back up those claims. SK hynix is aggressively ramping its 1c DRAM node from roughly 20,000 to 160,000–190,000 monthly wafers by the end of 2026, while Samsung is targeting about 50 percent HBM production capacity growth over the same period — though Samsung's binding constraint remains qualification and yield rather than installed capacity. As AI infrastructure investment accelerates, analysts increasingly see the contest between Samsung and SK hynix shifting beyond technology leadership alone. The next battle will be fought over manufacturing execution, production yields, customer qualification and, above all, the ability to lock in multi-year supply agreements with hyperscalers and AI chip designers investing hundreds of billions of dollars in next-generation data centers. Samsung enters the second half as the challenger seeking to convert its leadership in conventional DRAM into gains in premium AI memory. SK hynix, meanwhile, is betting that years of manufacturing experience, execution and customer relationships will prove just as difficult to catch as the technology itself. 2026-08-03 16:12:04