Samsung edges up after report it will tap TSMC for Nvidia HBM part

Samsung Electronics will rely on TSMC, the Taiwanese contract chipmaker, to produce the base die for Nvidia’s custom high-bandwidth memory, Seoul Economic Daily reported on Sunday, Oct 18. The base die is the logic layer at the bottom of a stack of HBM, the stacked memory placed beside AI processors. Samsung has not confirmed the report.

Samsung is the heaviest stock in the Korean market. Its market value was 1,274.5 trillion won (about US$958 billion) on Oct 19, or 29.05% of the total value of the KOSPI 200, the index of Korea’s 200 largest listed companies.

How the report grew over two days

In a second story that evening, Seoul Economic Daily described the deal as a joint effort by Samsung and TSMC to raise output of Nvidia’s custom HBM, with Samsung using TSMC’s 3-nanometer lines. Reuters carried the story late on Sunday and credited the Seoul newspaper.

On Monday, Seoul Economic Daily added that Nvidia is designing the memory together with both companies, aiming for 30% more bandwidth. That morning DigiTimes, also citing a report, wrote that Nvidia’s custom memory is drawing Samsung toward TSMC’s 3nm technology.

TrendForce went further on Monday. It reported that Nvidia is said to want TSMC 3nm base dies at all three memory makers, Samsung, SK hynix and Micron, noting that this would put foundry rivals on the same project.

A profit jump ahead of the Oct 29 call

The report lands between two earnings dates. On Oct 8, Samsung filed a preliminary estimate of third-quarter consolidated operating profit of 107.4 trillion won (about US$80.7 billion) on revenue of 195 trillion won (about US$146.6 billion). That profit was up 20.01% from the second quarter and the highest in at least six quarters.

Samsung has scheduled its third-quarter earnings conference call for Oct 29 at 10:00 KST. The company has not said whether it will address the TSMC report there.

A 1.16% gain that trailed the KOSPI

Oct 18 was a Sunday, so Monday, Oct 19, was the first session after the report. Samsung closed at 218,000 won (about US$163.87 at 1,330.3 won per dollar), up 1.16% from 215,500 won on Friday, Oct 16, while the KOSPI rose 1.76% to 5,768.01. The gain followed a hard week in which Samsung dropped 9.48% on Oct 15 to 210,000 won; even after Monday it was down 12.97% over five sessions.

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Information only, not investment advice.