Memory chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix are reportedly scaling up production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) in order to meet growing demand from AI customers.

According to Korean news outlets, Samsung is looking to expand its production capacity by around 50 percent in 2026, while SK Hynix has announced plans to increase its investment in infrastructure by more than four times the figure previously announced.

Both companies are currently constructing new fabs in South Korea to support these ambitions. Samsung’s P5 facility in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, is expected to be operational by 2028, with SK Hynix’s M15X facility slated for utilization by mid-2027.

The news comes as the industry attempts to grapple with a shortage of storage and memory hardware, with the size and scale of many AI data center build-outs announced this year seemingly having caught the market off guard and resulting in a capacity crunch some are forecasting could last up to two years.

In October 2025, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix struck a deal with OpenAI, which saw the three companies sign a letter of intent for the eventual supply of 900,000 DRAM wafers a month in order to meet the memory demands of its Stargate project.

That same month, Samsung said it was in “close discussion” to supply its next-generation HBM4 chips to Nvidia. Weeks later, the company announced plans to purchase 50,000 Nvidia GPUs, set to be deployed in a forthcoming AI factory, which will support its semiconductor manufacturing operations.

SK Group, the parent company of SK Hynix, also announced an Nvidia-powered AI factory to support semiconductor research, development, and production.

Per a report from Reuters, during the company’s New Year address, Samsung co-CEO and head of the company’s chip division, Jun Young-hyun, said: "On HBM4 in particular, customers have even stated that 'Samsung is back'.”

However, he acknowledged the company still had work to do to further challenge its domestic rivals SK Hynix, the latter of which held a 53 percent share of the HBM market in Q3 2025, compared to Samsung’s 35 percent, according to data from Counterpoint Research.

In December 2025, Micron – which holds an 11 percent market share – announced plans to exit the consumer memory and storage market in favor of AI data center customers.