Nvidia Blackwell (File photo downloaded from Nvidia website)
Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s top memory chipmaker, is likely to benefit from Nvidia Corp.’s delays of the upcoming artificial intelligence chips as global Big Tech companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Google are expected to seek alternatives of the AI semiconductor giant’s rivals.
Nvidia last week notified Microsoft and other major customers that the shipments of its Blackwell AI accelerator will be postponed by three months or more due to design flaws, US media such as The Information reported.
The delays are predicted to speed up Big Tech companies’ moves to seek products of Nvidia’s competitors such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), industry sources in Seoul said on Sunday. Microsoft and Google have already been developing next-generation products with AMD, while the former purchased the MI300X, an AI accelerator by the US fabless semiconductor designer.
Samsung supplies the fourth-generation High Bandwidth Memory3 (HBM3) chips to AMD and is almost certain to provide the fifth-generation HBM3E.
“It is highly risky for a specific company to dominate the AI chip supply chain,” said a semiconductor industry source in Seoul. “Samsung and AMD will have opportunities.”
Nvidia dominates the global AI accelerator sector with a 97.2% market share last year, according to industry tracker TechInsights Inc.
Nvidia GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip (File photo downloaded from Nvidia website)
Q1 2025 AT THE EARLIEST
Nvidia unveiled the Blackwell series in March, which the company said allows customers to build and run real-time generative AI on trillion-parameter large language models at up to 25 times less cost and energy consumption than its predecessor.
The crux of the issue reportedly lies in the processor die connecting two Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) on the GB200, its top-end model, according to media reports.
The Information expected the Blackwell AI accelerator to be delivered to customers in the first quarter of 2025, at the earliest.
Nvidia said the production of AI accelerators is on track to increase in the second half, adding the company would not comment on market rumors.
The delays in the Blackwell series production are likely to drag Big Tech companies’ plans to expand their AI businesses, raising concerns over the market dominance by only one company.
Nvidia’s major customers such as Google and Microsoft have already placed orders worth tens of billions of dollars for the GB200, prompting Nvidia to ask Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to increase the production of the chip by 25%.
TSMC is also a dominant foundry player in the AI accelerate sector with an estimated market share of over 95%. Samsung aims to take on the behemoth with its foundry package turnkey service.
By Jeong-Soo Hwang
hjs@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.
