The Samsung flag flutters in the wind at the Samsung Electronics Seocho building in Seocho-gu, Seoul. /Courtesy of News1

As Samsung Electronics recently concluded its global strategy meeting, the institutional sector for device solutions (DS) is reported to have discussed measures to enhance competitiveness in areas such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and foundry.

Samsung Electronics' global strategy meeting is an annual event held every June and December. At this gathering, representatives from regional corporations participate extensively to share issues by institutional sector and region and discuss marketing strategies.

On the 22nd, according to industry sources, the DS institutional sector focused on HBM as the main agenda during the strategy meeting held on the 18th, discussing strategies to supply 5th generation HBM (HBM3E) 12 layers to NVIDIA and plans for mass production of 6th generation HBM (HBM4), as well as improvements in DRAM design.

In the case of Samsung Electronics' memory division, it has lost its position as the number one in the DRAM market to SK hynix for the first time in 33 years during the first quarter of this year, which has led to a decline in competitiveness. U.S. Micron and China’s CXMT (Changxin Memory) are also rapidly closing in on Samsung Electronics, increasing feelings of crisis.

Amid this, Samsung Electronics is reportedly focusing on discussing recovery measures centered on HBM. The decline in Samsung Electronics' DRAM competitiveness and market share is generally attributed to missteps in the HBM business.

On the 13th, the official delivery of Samsung Electronics' improved HBM3E 12-layer product to U.S. tech giant AMD verified its technological capabilities, prompting discussions to penetrate NVIDIA's supply chain, which they have yet to enter. The HBM3E products supplied to AMD by Samsung Electronics are currently undergoing quality testing by NVIDIA.

It is reported that they also reviewed plans for the mass production of HBM4 using 10nm (nanometers; 1 billionth of 1m) 6th generation (1c) DRAM in the second half of the year. As the yield of general 1c DRAM has improved recently, the yield and performance of 1c DRAM used for HBM are also said to be accelerating in improvements.

The foundry (contract semiconductor manufacturing) division, which has been experiencing quarterly deficits in the trillion won range, is also understood to have shared its order strategy. While the gap with TSMC in Taiwan is widening, the gap with latecomers is narrowing, making it urgent to secure clients for market share defense.

According to market research firm TrendForce, Samsung Electronics' foundry market share in the first quarter of this year was 7.7%, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous fourth quarter. During the same period, the gap with industry leader TSMC (67.6%) has widened, while the gap with Chinese SMIC (6%) has narrowed.

As for system LSI, discussions are reported to have been held regarding next-generation products including the application processor (AP) 'Exynos 2500,' which Samsung Electronics is set to feature in its upcoming foldable smartphone 'Galaxy Z7 series' next month.