South Korean media: China's HBM technology is accelerating to catch up with South Korea!

On May 31, South Korean media "Commercial Post" published an article stating that Huawei and Changxin Memory of China are accelerating the development of artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor-related technologies. In particular, China's accelerated pursuit in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market dominated by SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics is considered a medium- to long-term risk for South Korea's semiconductor industry.

Recently, The Economist reported that "optimism is spreading among Chinese semiconductor companies such as Huawei, as China's AI technology capabilities are overcoming US restrictions."

During the presidencies of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the US government gradually strengthened measures such as semiconductor export controls to prevent the development of China's AI industry.

This reflects the judgment that top companies like NVIDIA are rapidly enhancing the capabilities of China's large tech companies with their high-performance semiconductors.

However, The Economist stated that local enterprises such as Tencent and Alibaba have already operated multiple large AI data centers, and the situation has improved since the emergence of DeepSeek.

This is because the AI models developed in China provide a technical direction for domestic enterprises to achieve sufficient performance without heavily relying on NVIDIA's high-performance semiconductors.

The Economist analyzed that the development of AI semiconductor technology by companies like Huawei also contributed to this trend.

Although Huawei's AI semiconductors do not perform as well as NVIDIA's products, they can overcome the performance gap by combining multiple semiconductors.

The Economist reported that, besides Huawei, several local companies including Cambricon and Hygon are also actively advancing the commercialization of technologies that may replace NVIDIA's AI semiconductors.

Changxin Memory's efforts to commercialize its HBM are also worth noting.

HBM is an essential high-spec component in NVIDIA's AI semiconductors. Currently, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics practically monopolize the global market.

SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics are actively responding to the rapidly growing demand for HBM by increasing production and focusing on the development of next-generation standard technologies, viewing it as a core growth driver.

However, The Economist stated that "Changxin Memory is believed to be rapidly catching up with SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and US Micron in HBM technology."

This could pose a medium- to long-term risk to South Korean semiconductor companies, as the collapse of the HBM market's monopoly system could make them vulnerable to oversupply and price competition.

Analysts believe that China is strengthening its self-sufficiency system by developing key semiconductor manufacturing equipment, which is difficult to import from other countries due to US government-led regulations.

The Economist believes that despite these efforts, it will not be easy for China to completely bridge the technological gap by establishing a fully independent supply chain in the AI semiconductor market.

In particular, the inability to purchase extreme ultraviolet (EUV) equipment, which is essential for micro-process semiconductor production from ASML in the Netherlands, is considered the biggest weakness of Chinese enterprises.

Companies like NVIDIA and AMD produce critical AI semiconductor products using processes below 4 nanometers to achieve outstanding performance and energy efficiency, while companies like Huawei rely on SMIC's 7-nanometer micro-process foundry.

However, this can be seen as an indication that if Chinese enterprises overcome their weaknesses in micro-processing technology, they could immediately acquire the capability to threaten global competitors.

The Economist stated, "Huawei has repeatedly achieved seemingly impossible feats in the past, and as Chinese enterprises view the development of their domestic semiconductor industry as a critical survival factor, their efforts in technological progress will become even more forceful."

Original Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1833601948613632/

Disclaimer: This article solely represents the views of the author.