Rumor

Unnamed Buyer Allegedly Secures Almost All of SK Hynix's HBM4 Supply for 2026

Friday, December 5, 2025 at 11:20 PM

An unnamed entity has reportedly placed an order for nearly the entire 2026 production volume of SK Hynix's next-generation HBM4 memory. This massive order is speculated to be for a future GPU product.

Context

SK Hynix has reportedly secured commitments for nearly its entire 2026 supply of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), including the advanced HBM4. This significant pre-booking highlights the intense demand for high-performance memory, primarily driven by the artificial intelligence sector. While the buyer remains officially unnamed, industry speculation strongly points to Nvidia for its upcoming Rubin GPU architecture, securing a considerable advantage in the competitive AI hardware landscape. This move is critical for the AI supply chain, ensuring a stable supply of cutting-edge memory. HBM4 is expected to deliver substantially increased bandwidth, with early samples showing 1.6 TB/s per stack and potential for Rubin-class GPUs to achieve 16 TB/s or more. This enhanced capability is crucial for accelerating demanding AI workloads, such as processing and decoding tokens, vital for large language models and other generative AI applications. SK Hynix plans to begin shipping HBM4 in late 2025, with a full-scale sales expansion throughout 2026. This aggressive ramp-up reflects the company's confidence in a prolonged chip "super cycle" fueled by AI, despite the high cost and complex manufacturing of HBM4 which commands a significant price premium over traditional memory.

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