South Korea’s memory chip exports to Taiwan have experienced a remarkable surge, growing over 225% year-over-year in the first six months of 2023. This dramatic increase is attributed to the insatiable demand for AI GPUs and AI accelerators, which rely heavily on HBM memory chips. A report from the Korea Times reveals that outbound shipments of HBM memory chips to Taiwan reached a staggering $4.26 billion during this period, representing a 225.7% jump compared to the previous year. This growth significantly outpaces the overall increase in South Korea’s memory chip exports, which stood at 88.7% during the same timeframe.
Taiwan’s status as the third-largest importer of South Korean memory chips during this period, surpassing both Vietnam and the United States, is a testament to this burgeoning market. Industry experts attribute this surge to SK hynix’s robust HBM supply to NVIDIA, a leading manufacturer of AI GPUs. NVIDIA utilizes SK hynix’s HBM memory within its AI GPUs, which are fabricated at TSMC’s facilities in Taiwan. Notably, SK hynix is currently the sole South Korean company supplying HBM chips, the core component of AI accelerators, to NVIDIA. While Samsung is expected to enter the market in the coming months, SK hynix has enjoyed a period of dominance, reaping substantial rewards.
Kim Yang-paeng, a researcher at the Korea Institutes for Industrial Economics & Trade, emphasized the connection between the surge in exports and SK hynix’s contributions to TSMC’s final packaging of AI accelerators. This remarkable growth underscores the critical role that South Korea plays in the global AI landscape, particularly in the burgeoning field of high-performance computing and its associated memory requirements.
