As NVIDIA's China ban lifts, so does Samsung's potential fortunes

NVIDIA was previously allowed to sell an effectively downgraded version of its previous H200 AI chip to China. That authorization was pulled by the United States a few months back, but the administration has now reversed course and allowed sales of H200 chips to China again.

As NVIDIA expects to see a surge in demand for H200 AI chips from China, so should Samsung for its high-bandwidth memory, which is a crucial part of AI accelerators.

Samsung and its local rival SK Hynix together account for more than 80% of the global high-bandwidth memory market. Any uptick in AI chip demand is a positive sentiment for both companies as they can sell more HBM chips.

SK Hynix has largely been the main supplier of high-bandwidth memory to NVIDIA so far as Samsung was facing delays getting its chips approved by the AI chip giant. That hurdle has now been cleared as NVIDIA has finally designated Samsung as a key partner for future HBM3E and HBM4 supply.

Samsung is already mass production HBM3E memory chips and is well positioned to respond to any immediate demand from NVIDIA. This will further boost the company's bottom line, particularly its profits from the memory division, which is taking full advantage of the steep rise in memory chip prices over the second half of this year.