Samsung, the world's biggest memory chip maker, has opened a new semiconductor chip research lab in Silicon Valley, USA. This research lab comes under the DSA (Device Solutions America) arm of Samsung Electronics, and it will focus on developing the next-generation 3D DRAM technology, as per several reports.
Samsung is developing 3D DRAM technology that can offer up to 100Gb capacity on a single chip
The South Korean firm's new memory research lab will develop next-generation technologies to help the company lead the next wave of memory products. Samsung said it is developing new DRAM structures using sub-10nm fabrication technologies. According to Yonhap News Agency, the new technology will bring higher capacity memory chips of up to 100Gb (for each chip). In 2013, Samsung was the first in the world to commercialize 3D vertical NAND flash memory, and it could be the first to develop 3D DRAM.
The memory chip market is improving after a year of a terrible phase. Samsung's semiconductor division posted a loss for the first time in its history due to the downturn in the chip market last year. After the cloud server boom in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period, several technology firms ordered a lot of memory chips, but then the economic downturn hit the world, and the companies became cautious with their spending. So, there was an oversupply of memory chips, and clients weren't buying as many chips, leading to a fall in memory chip prices.
However, thanks to the AI boom after the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, more companies are now investing in AI servers that need a lot of memory. So, memory chip prices are increasing, and experts say that 2024 will be a good year for memory chip firms like Micron, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently traveled to South Korea to meet Samsung and SK Hynix executives for a possible AI chip venture. Samsung's LPDDR5X DRAM could also be integrated into Intel's Lunar Lake processors, which could launch later this year.
Samsung has started integrating AI-powered technologies in many of its product categories. Its new Neo QLED TVs also feature AI for improved audio and picture quality, and you can watch that TV in our video below.
