[News] NVIDIA Reportedly Pushes TSMC 3nm NVHBM Base Dies for Samsung, SK hynix, Micron, Uniting Foundry Rivals

What happened

According to Seoul Economic Daily (with ZDNet having reported in September that Samsung is pursuing a dual-track strategy for custom HBM, tapping both its own foundry and rival TSMC), NVIDIA has asked Samsung, SK hynix and Micron to adopt TSMC's 3nm process for the base dies of its NVHBM, unveiled in August. Samsung's Device Solutions (DS) division reportedly agreed to the requirements following an internal review. The stated causes are NVIDIA's push to standardize production across suppliers to ensure consistent HBM performance and simplify product validation; additionally, industry estimates place TSMC's 3nm yields above 90%, versus around 60% for Samsung Foundry's 2nm (SF2) process. NVHBM's custom base die integrates the memory controller traditionally housed in the GPU; according to NVIDIA, the technology offers up to 30% more memory bandwidth, 15% lower HBM power consumption and 25% more XPU compute die area than standard HBM4E. The partnership is not entirely new: according to Seoul Economic Daily, Samsung and TSMC first collaborated four years ago to ensure HBM compatibility with TSMC's GPU packaging process, and this latest tie-up extends into HBM manufacturing for the first time. Samsung is keeping its own foundry in play: with TSMC's 3nm capacity facing competing demand from AI accelerators and smartphone chips, Samsung is validating NVHBM base die production on its 2nm process as a potential alternative should TSMC face capacity constraints. TSMC flagged tight 3nm capacity at its October 15 earnings call, with the node accounting for 33% of third-quarter wafer sales, its largest share among all process nodes; according to Economic Daily News, Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei announced plans for another 3nm fab in Tainan, on top of existing expansion projects in Arizona, Japan's Kumamoto and Taiwan's Southern Taiwan Science Park, with the additional fab slated to begin mass production in the first half of 2028. Samsung also continues in-house base die production for its standard HBM lineup: HBM4, which entered mass production earlier this year, and HBM4E, now undergoing production validation, both use Samsung Foundry's 4nm process for base dies, while their core dies are manufactured on 1c DRAM lines at its Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek campuses; Samsung plans to maintain its turnkey approach to base die production for custom HBM supplied to other customers, including AMD.

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Source and time

Source: TrendForce · 10/18/2026 · View original source