SK Hynix Vice President of Future Strategy Ryu Byung-hoon emphasized the need for careful investment in high-bandwidth memory (HBM). In an interview with the SK Hynix Newsroom on June 4, Ryu said, “As AI services become more advanced, the memory barrier is often highlighted as a limitation. HBM is emerging as a solution to this, and demand is expected to increase.”
The term “memory wall” refers to a bottleneck situation in which the processor waits because the data it needs for further processing has not yet arrived in memory.
The Ryu Future Strategy Team developed a market analysis tool to forecast the memory market, and this year it was reborn as an organization that analyzes short-term and long-term strategies, investment efficiency, geopolitical issues, and more.
“A lot of AI companies are venture capital-backed, and there’s also demand driven by FOMO, or fear of missing out,” Ryu said. He suggested SK Hynix could benefit as latecomers in the AI space ramp up chip buying to make more advanced products. FOMO stands for “fear of missing out,” referring to the anxiety of being left behind or excluded.
Ryu stressed the need to be cautious in investing in the HBM market. “Given the pace of AI data center construction, we need to increase investments carefully,” he said. In the past, memory makers have over-expanded production capacity, leading to a significant drop in profitability during last year’s semiconductor downturn. In response, Ryu said SK Hynix will maintain a conservative investment approach to ensure profitability.
He concluded by saying, “Given the competitive environment, strategic alliances and close service to customers will become even more important, and we will consider our future strategies accordingly.”
