Samsung to Double HBM4 Output Next Year, Sources Say - Seoul Economic DailySkip to main contentSeoul Economic DailyMarketsPropertyFinanceBusinessTechnologyPoliticsSocietyCultureSportsInternationalOpinionAI KEYSeoul Economic Daily KSTSeoul Economic DailyKorea's Leading Business News Since 1960한국어MarketsPropertyFinanceBusinessTechnologyPoliticsSocietyCultureSportsInternationalOpinionAI KEYMenuSaved ArticlesNewslettersAI KEYSettingsSamsung to Double HBM4 Output Next Year, Sources SayHBM capacity to expand to 250,000 wafers a month
Glass carrier, essential for high-layer stacking, in focus
Outsourced glass carrier volume to rise 2.5-fold
Sixth- and seventh-generation chips to make up 80% of outputFinance|Published 2026.09.20. 16:33:51| Updated 2026.09.20. 23:30:08|By Seo Jong-gapgap@sedaily.com|Summary|SaveAAAA shareholder photographs sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) and seventh-generation HBM4E chips with a smartphone camera at Samsung Electronics' 57th annual general meeting of shareholders, held in March at the Suwon Convention Center in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. Yonhap NewsSamsung Electronics (005930) is expected to more than double output of its HBM4 family of high-bandwidth memory chips next year, including sixth-generation HBM4 and seventh-generation HBM4E, as the company plans to raise demand for glass carriers by 2.5 times from this year. Glass carriers are glass supports that hold wafers in place while HBM DRAM is thinned.Samsung will increase outsourced cleaning volume for glass carriers, an essential material in HBM production, to 50,000 sheets a month next year from 20,000 sheets a month this year, according to semiconductor industry sources on the 20th. Glass carrier requirements stood at 10,000 sheets a month as recently as last year, doubling this year and set to rise 2.5-fold next year.A glass carrier is a support temporarily attached to the underside of an HBM DRAM wafer to prevent bending or cracking while the wafer is ground thin and drilled. Because HBM requires stacking multiple DRAM dies within a limited thickness, the technology for thinning wafers and the processes for controlling warpage become more important as stack counts rise.The HBM4 and HBM4E products Samsung is preparing to scale up center on 12-layer and higher stacks. Industry analysts say that even accounting for the fact that glass carriers are reused after cleaning and that consumption varies by process loading method and yield, a 2.5-fold increase in related volume makes it highly likely that HBM4 and HBM4E output will grow at least twofold from this year.In February, Samsung began mass-production shipments of HBM4 using 10-nanometer-class sixth-generation (1c) DRAM and a base die built on a 4-nanometer process. In May, it also provided 12-layer HBM4E samples to customers including Nvidia.The industry expects Samsung's HBM production scale to grow nearly 40% to about 250,000 wafers next year from roughly 180,000 wafers this year, measured by average monthly wafer input. By product shipment mix, the HBM4 family is projected to rise from around 40% this year to about 80% next year as HBM4E mass production ramps up. "As Samsung expands HBM production, it appears to be placing HBM4, a high-value product, at the center," an industry official said.Sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) products are loaded onto a truck for mass-production shipment at Samsung Electronics' Cheonan campus in Chungcheongnam-do in February this year. Samsung Electronics#SamsungElectronics#HBM4#HBM4E#Semiconductor#MemoryChips#NvidiaCompanies in this storySamsung Electronics005930.KS · SemiconductorAI KEY Company Analysis →Original reporting by Seo Jong-gap for Seoul Economic Daily.AI-translated from Korean. Quotes from foreign sources are based on Korean-language reports and may not reflect exact original wording.View Korean original↗Translation PolicyWatch · Seoul Economic DailyMore →4:38SK Declares SK Hynix Its Undisputed Number One as AI Restructuring Accelerates | September 18 20264:38Related ArticlesSamsung Locks In HBM4 Yields, Prepares Volume PushPublished 2026.09.20. 18:01:34Chip Market to Double to $1.6 Trillion This Year Despite AI Slowdown CallsPublished 2026.09.20. 15:50:17Nikkei Reporters Warn of Chip Glut Behind Global Semiconductor RacePublished 2026.09.18. 17:50:36Most Read This Week1-5‹›1Court Rejects 100 Million Won Suit Against Min Hee-jin Over ILLIT Plagiarism Claims2China's UBTECH Opens Plant Making a Humanoid Robot Every 10 Minutes3KOSPI Opens 2.54% Higher at 6,885.704Amazon Bets on Hollow Core Fiber to Keep a Million Chips in Sync5Musk Accelerates Tesla's Robot Gigafactory for Optimus← Back to Home◆ SIGNAL English EditionRead this story12 hours earlier.Korean capital markets, translated. 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Samsung Electronics is projected to more than double its output of the HBM4 family of high-bandwidth memory chips next year, encompassing the sixth-generation HBM4 and the seventh-generation HBM4E. This anticipated expansion is predicated on the company's plan to significantly increase demand for glass carriers, which are essential components in the production process. Glass carriers function as glass supports that maintain the position of wafers while HBM DRAM is thinned, a technology increasingly critical as stack counts for HBM rise.

To support this growth, Samsung intends to raise the demand for glass carriers by two and a half times from the current year. This increased requirement translates to a substantial rise in outsourced cleaning volume for these carriers, which are a necessary material for HBM manufacturing. According to semiconductor industry sources, this outsourced volume for glass carriers is expected to increase significantly, moving from twenty thousand sheets per month this year to fifty thousand sheets per month next year. This reflects an escalation in demand, as glass carrier requirements stood at ten thousand sheets per month last year.

The technological requirements for HBM4 and HBM4E necessitate scaling up production on twelve-layer and higher stacks. Industry analysts suggest that even when accounting for factors such as the reuse of glass carriers after cleaning and variations in consumption due to different process loading methods and yields, a two and a half fold increase in related volume makes a twofold growth in the output of HBM4 and HBM4E highly probable from the current year.

Samsung initiated mass production shipments of HBM4 in February by utilizing sixth-generation one-nanometer class DRAM and a base die built on a four-nanometer process. Furthermore, the company supplied samples of twelve-layer HBM4E to customers, including Nvidia, in May. Looking at the overall production scale, the industry anticipates Samsung’s HBM production to grow by approximately forty percent to reach about two hundred fifty thousand wafers next year, compared to roughly one hundred eighty thousand wafers in the current year, based on average monthly wafer input. Furthermore, the product mix is projected to shift substantially; the HBM4 family is expected to constitute about eighty percent of output next year, as the mass production of HBM4E ramps up. This trend indicates that the HBM4 product line will be positioned centrally within Samsung’s expanding memory operations.