Samsung Electronics started shipping samples of its 12-layer HBM4E high-bandwidth memory chips on May 29, beating its own target of the second half of 2026. The stock responded accordingly, surging as much as 6.5% and outperforming the broader KOSPI index.
The numbers behind HBM4E
Samsung’s new HBM4E chips clock in at 16 Gbps per pin. That’s over 20% faster than the HBM4 generation, which sustained speeds of 11.7 Gbps. Total bandwidth reaches 4.0 TB/s, a figure that matters enormously for the AI accelerators and data center hardware these chips are designed to power.
Samsung had already kicked off mass production of its standard HBM4 chips back in February 2026, becoming the first company to do so. The jump from HBM4 to HBM4E samples in roughly three months is an unusually compressed timeline, even by semiconductor industry standards.
The SK Hynix rivalry in focus
