NuAxiSemiconductor trade intelligence

[News] TSMC Pushes Back on 3D DRAM Rumors: Three Memory Plays Where It Still Has a Say

What happened

According to a November 13, 2026 report, TSMC pushed back against 3D DRAM manufacturing rumors, reaffirming its commitment to its core foundry business, and industry sources indicate that despite having no concrete plans to manufacture DRAM itself, TSMC is involved in embedded DRAM, HBM base dies and wafer-to-wafer stacking for Qualcomm. Embedded DRAM: in 2007 TSMC said it had produced its first 65nm eDRAM customer products; in March 2008 it said its 40nm 40G and 40LP processes could be paired with embedded DRAM; per an eeNews Europe report back in 2025, its 22nm MRAM is in production, with 16nm ready for customers and 12nm in development. HBM base dies: per TrendForce, HBM base dies are expected to increasingly adopt TSMC's advanced nodes starting with HBM4E, with some suppliers possibly turning to TSMC's 12nm process for standard HBM products and customized designs potentially pushing into 3nm; SK hynix and Micron are reportedly poised to tap TSMC for custom HBM4E base die production; per The Elec, Micron president and CTPO Scott J. DeBoer revealed at the company's September 30 earnings event that both its NVIDIA co-designed NVHBM and JEDEC-standard HBM4E are being developed using foundry-manufactured base dies, a departure from Micron's HBM4 approach that relied on an internally developed base die; per Seoul Economic Daily, NVIDIA has asked Samsung, SK hynix and Micron to use TSMC's 3nm process for the base dies of its NVHBM, unveiled in August, aiming to standardize manufacturing across suppliers, ensure consistent performance and streamline product validation. Qualcomm HBC: Qualcomm validated its first chips featuring HBC technology in early November, HBC is expected to debut in the Dragonfly AI250 accelerator with sampling slated for 1H27 (per ServeTheHome), placing LPDDR memory directly atop the compute die; per an August report by The Elec, Samsung and SK hynix are working with Qualcomm on commercialization and are expected to handle DRAM stacking, while TSMC is reportedly poised to contribute technology integration and advanced packaging expertise. Multiple items described here are reported plans or rumors, not achieved results. The source does not state the cause beyond the reported rationale of standardizing manufacturing.