Huawei, Baidu stocks Samsung HBM chips amid tough U.S. restrictions: Report

A new report says that Huawei, Baidu, and some other Chinese firms are stocking up Samsung HBM chips. The increasing U.S. restrictions on trade exports seem a major reason for the quick and more purchase of the South Korean firm’s AI chipsets.

The story began when the U.S. government started planning to further tighten export controls for China by this month. As per the new regulations, Chinese companies won’t be able to access high-bandwidth memory processors from foreign suppliers.

As a result, many Chinese firms including Huawei and Baidu rushed to stockpile Samsung HBM chips in advance. The process already started at the onset of this year. Although now, the OEMs are gearing up this AI chip purchase for a safe hand.

Thus, China now holds 30% of Samsung AI processors as of the first half of 2024. Despite harsh U.S. restrictions, Huawei and other Chinese firms are constantly making efforts to move ahead on the path of advancement and meet their AI tech goals.

When asked the U.S. Department of Commerce about their new trade export rules, it refused to comment. However, the only cause to upgrade these rules is to protect the U.S. national security as well as safeguard their technological ecosystem.

HBM or high bandwidth memory chip delivers ultra-wide communication coverage with low power consumption. Hence, offering efficient performance.

It overlaps many layers of memory chips to lessen footprints for conjunction via high-performance graphics accelerators, network devices, and high-performance data centers. These chips are important for developing advanced AI processors.

Apart from Samsung, there are two more major HBM producers – SK Hynix and Micron Technology. While the most advanced HBM version is HBM3E, China is focusing on the 2E model for slow but effective growth in the AI field.

Huawei so far, has been using Samsung HBM chipsets for its Ascend AI processors. At the same time, the company is in the headlines for building its own high-bandwidth memory chipsets. The tech giant might achieve this goal by 2026.

It also joined forces with new partners to get help for AI projects. Yet how the company would make things better amid growing U.S.-China chip tensions is worth looking forward to.

[Source – Reuters| Featured Image: Samsung]