Market Share
~60% HBM
Key Product
HBM3E memory for H100/H200
Bottleneck Status
HBM sold out → 2026 across all suppliers
Full briefing▼ Expand
SK Hynix is the world's leading supplier of HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), the stacked DRAM that provides the massive memory bandwidth required by AI accelerators. The company supplied the overwhelming majority of NVIDIA's HBM3E memory for the H100 and H200 in 2023–2024 — Samsung and Micron have since qualified — making it a critical and often overlooked chokepoint in the AI supply chain. HBM is manufactured by stacking multiple DRAM dies with through-silicon vias (TSVs) and bonding them to a logic die — a technically demanding process that only SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron can perform. SK Hynix holds approximately 60% of the HBM market and has been running at full allocation with a backlog extending into 2026. Its Icheon and Cheongju fabs in South Korea are among the most strategically important manufacturing sites in the world.
Connected companies
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Critical path — raw silicon to deployment
The tightest single-source dependencies, in order.
RAW MATERIALS
Antimony (CN)
Antimony trioxide (Sb₂O₃) for flame retardants and antimony metal for III-V compounds
EQUIPMENT
Kokusai Electric
Batch thermal ALD and CVD furnace systems
MATERIALS
Shin-Etsu Chemical
300mm silicon wafers and photoresist
MEMORY (HBM)
SK Hynix
HBM3E memory for H100/H200
FOUNDRIES
TSMC
CoWoS advanced packaging, N3/N2 logic
CHIP DESIGNERS
Marvell
OCTEON network processors, custom cloud AI ASICs, 400G/800G Ethernet PHYs
Export controls touching SK Hynix
China Gallium & Germanium Export Controls (Aug 2023)
China's Ministry of Commerce and Customs implemented export licensing requirements for gallium and germanium products, effective August 1, 2023. The controls cover 8 gallium-related items (including gallium metal, gallium nitride, and gallium arsenide) and 6 germanium-related items (including germanium metal, germanium dioxide, and germanium epitaxial growth wafers). Exporters must apply to the Ministry of Commerce for licenses, which are reviewed for national security and non-proliferation considerations. China produces approximately 80% of the world's gallium and 60% of its germanium, making these controls a direct leverage point over semiconductor and compound-semiconductor supply chains globally.
▲ 13 companies affected
QWho supplies SK Hynix?
SK Hynix relies on 11 upstream suppliers across the AI chip supply chain.
Antimony (CN) (Dominant antimony producer for PCB substrate flame retardants and III-V semiconductor compounds), Entegris (Critical process materials supplier: CMP slurries, ultra-high-purity chemical delivery, and wafer carriers), SCREEN Holdings (Leading wafer cleaning and surface treatment equipment maker (~20% global market share)), Kokusai Electric (Critical supplier of batch ALD and CVD furnace systems essential for NAND and DRAM production), Shin-Etsu Chemical (World's largest silicon wafer supplier), and 6 more.
QWhat does SK Hynix make?
Leading HBM3/HBM3E supplier for AI accelerators
Key products HBM3E memory for H100/H200
▲HBM sold out → 2026 across all suppliers