Samsung is finally making its move in the high-stakes AI chip race. The South Korean tech giant plans to begin building its next-generation HBM4 memory chips next month. According to sources familiar with the matter, Samsung will ship these powerful chips straight to Nvidia to power its latest artificial intelligence hardware.
For the last year, Samsung has been playing catch-up. Its hometown rival, SK Hynix, took an early lead by becoming the primary supplier for Nvidia’s AI systems. That delay hurt Samsung’s profits and frustrated investors throughout 2025. However, a new report from the Korea Economic Daily says Samsung finally cleared the necessary hurdles and passed qualification tests for both Nvidia and AMD.
The stock market reacted instantly to the news on Monday. Samsung’s shares climbed 2.2%, while SK Hynix’s shares fell nearly 3%. Investors are betting that Samsung is finally ready to reclaim its spot at the top of the memory market.
The demand for these chips is sky-high. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently mentioned that the company’s newest platform, “Vera Rubin,” is already in full production. These advanced AI processors require the high-speed HBM4 chips to handle the massive amounts of data they crunch every second.
We should get more official details later this week. Both Samsung and SK Hynix plan to announce their fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday. Analysts expect both companies to share more information about their order books and the exact number of next-gen chips they will produce this year.
While Samsung is ramping up, SK Hynix is not sitting still. It is also preparing a brand-new factory in South Korea to start its own production push next month. The competition between these two giants is getting intense, but for a company like Nvidia, having two reliable suppliers for its most critical components is a massive win.
