sun

According to a report by ZDNet Korea, Samsung Electronics is adjusting its next-generation DRAM strategy by incorporating the previously project-based B1b into its official roadmap, naming it the first DRAM D0a below 10 nanometers. Previously, D0a referred to vertical transistor DRAM, and this product is now classified separately as D0a-V. This renaming aims to accelerate the introduction of advanced packaging in general DRAM.B1b will manufacture storage cells and peripheral driver circuits on different wafers before bonding them together, using wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding and directly connecting through copper interconnects. The currently commercialized DRAM is 1c, which is the 6th generation 10 nanometer level, with a line width of about 11 to 12 nanometers; the next generation 1d is the 7th generation 10 nanometer level, with a line width of about 10 to 11 nanometers, considered effectively the last 10 nanometer level product, with the related line width being a marketing term rather than an actual physical size. Vertical transistors can arrange transistors within the cell vertically, reducing the cell area from 6F² to 4F², but they need to address high aspect ratio etching and leakage current, making development more challenging. Wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding has already been mass-produced in CMOS image sensors and high-stacking NAND.Samsung Electronics is evaluating the use of B1b for the 8th generation high bandwidth memory HBM5. HBM5 is expected to be mass-produced around 2029, aiming to increase operating speed by more than 50% compared to HBM4E. Industry estimates suggest that D0a DRAM based on B1b will be commercially available in about two years, with specific mass production investment schedules likely to be determined by mid-next year.

According to Money Today on September 21, Samsung Electronics is advancing the expansion of advanced process capacity in wafer foundry due to the growth of the HBM market. To meet the rising demand for HBM4 base chips, it is evaluating the expansion of its 4-nanometer process. Samsung's HBM4 consists of 10-nanometer 6th generation (1c) DRAM core chips and 4-nanometer logic base chips, with the base chips responsible for high-speed data exchange with AI accelerators such as GPUs.Unlike SK Hynix, which uses TSMC's 12-nanometer process for HBM4 base chips, Samsung employs its own 4-nanometer process. This production line is operating at full capacity and has taken on orders from companies like Nvidia and Groq for 3 LPU, and the company has recently raised its prices for new 4-nanometer orders and HBM4 base chips. Samsung expects HBM4 revenue in the third quarter to increase more than threefold quarter-on-quarter, with HBM4 accounting for significantly more than 60% of HBM revenue in the second half of the year. The additional expansion at P4 in Pyeongtaek will mostly be used for 1c DRAM for HBM, with more than half of the wafer foundry's 4-nanometer capacity allocated to HBM4 base chips.HBM4E also uses 4-nanometer base chips, and Samsung provided samples to customers in May. The company is also evaluating the construction of a new 2-nanometer production line for HBM5, aiming for a GAA structure 2-nanometer process and increasing TSV density to improve operating speed by more than 50% compared to HBM4E. Samsung started the first generation of 2-nanometer mass production in the second half of last year and is advancing the second generation of products in the second half of this year. Citigroup expects global HBM bit demand to reach 75.2 billion Gb next year, a year-on-year increase of 62%, with supply around 59.4 billion Gb and a gap of about 21%.

According to Digital Asset, global payment company Stripe has added support for Samsung Pay on the Android side for its cryptocurrency fiat purchase service Crypto Onramp in the React Native SDK version 0.75.0, covering payment configuration, availability checks, payment method collection, and integration examples.Android applications developed with React Native can access Samsung Pay, allowing users to purchase cryptocurrency using fiat currency through this payment method. Previously, the service supported payment methods such as credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and ACH bank transfers.

According to a report by Seoul Economic Daily, Samsung Electronics plans to increase the production of the sixth-generation high bandwidth memory HBM4 and the seventh-generation HBM4E, among other HBM4 series, by at least more than double compared to this year. The company intends to outsource the cleaning volume of glass substrates required for thinning HBM DRAM from 20,000 pieces per month this year to 50,000 pieces per month next year, an increase of 2.5 times compared to this year. Last year, the monthly demand for these substrates was about 10,000 pieces, which has already doubled this year compared to last year.The HBM4 and HBM4E that Samsung Electronics is focusing on expanding production are primarily high-stacking products with 12 layers or more. The company began mass production and shipment of HBM4 using sixth-generation 10nm (1c) DRAM and 4nm process-based chips in February this year, and provided 12-layer samples of HBM4E to customers such as Nvidia in May. The industry expects that, based on monthly wafer input, Samsung Electronics' HBM production capacity will increase from about 180,000 pieces this year to about 250,000 pieces next year, an increase of nearly 40%; the shipment proportion of the HBM4 series may rise from about 40% this year to about 80% next year.

Samsung Electronics hired former Director of the Foreign Exchange System Division of the Ministry of Finance and Economy, Lee Hee-kun, for its IR team as an executive last month. Lee Hee-kun has held positions such as Director of the Foreign Exchange System Division and Director of the Capital Market Policy Division, responsible for foreign exchange systems and overseas investment responses. In April this year, he participated in the work of including South Korea in the World Government Bond Index and received special recognition. He is expected to be responsible for responding to overseas investors and the global capital market.SK Hynix hired former Director of the Strategic Economic Division of the Ministry of Finance and Economy, Jeong Yu-jin, as the Vice President under the Communications Division last month. Jeong Yu-jin has served as the Director of the Climate and Environment Budget Division, Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Director of the Foreign Exchange System Division, and Director of the Foreign Exchange Fund Division. Both companies are advancing production investments in the United States, with Samsung Electronics planning to invest $37 billion to build a foundry in Taylor, Texas, and SK Hynix planning to invest $4 billion to build an advanced packaging factory in Indiana.

Samsung Electronics has started prototype production of AI5 chips for Tesla at its foundry in Taylor, Texas. Due to the surge in demand for AI chips, Samsung has accelerated prototype output for yield verification, planning to complete mass production validation by the end of this year and to supply fully next year.

On September 16, local time, the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) announced that it has launched a patent infringement investigation into certain electronic devices equipped with specific audio technology. The subjects of the investigation include Samsung Electronics and its U.S. subsidiaries, Apple Inc., and Google LLC. The initiation of the investigation itself does not constitute a determination of patent infringement.The investigation is based on a complaint submitted by BoomCloud 360 Inc. on August 14 and supplemented on August 31. The complainant alleges that the relevant devices infringe its patents when imported into and sold in the United States, violating Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, and requests that the ITC issue a limited exclusion order and a cease-and-desist order.The case will be assigned to an administrative law judge for a hearing on the evidence, which will make a preliminary determination on whether Section 337 has been violated, followed by a final decision after review by the ITC. The ITC will set a target date for completing the investigation within 45 days of the filing. The relief order will take effect immediately and become a final order after 60 days, unless the U.S. Trade Representative disapproves it for policy reasons within 60 days.

The founder of TRON, Justin Sun, announced the official establishment of the "Justin Sun Award" and revealed the first batch of winners. This is the world's first zero-trust, decentralized academic reward mechanism based on a "problem list," with significant breakthroughs in fundamental disciplines and machine formal verification as the sole criteria for awarding, with a maximum prize of up to 1 million dollars for a single problem.Justin Sun stated that the award aims to initiate a new scientific incentive paradigm centered on machine verification, powered by human-machine collaboration, and driven by decentralized rewards, striving to create a Nobel Prize for the AI era.The top prize of 1 million dollars was awarded to the OpenAI research team in recognition of their completion of the "Existence and Smoothness of the Navier-Stokes Equations" solution and formal proof. Other awarded achievements include the Sandorff Conjecture, Erdős Disjoint Subset, and other problems, involving a total of 66 mathematical problems.It is reported that the "Justin Sun Award" is open to all contributors, with no identity restrictions; both humans and AI can win, but only the first completer of the listed problems will be awarded. The problem list and proof materials are publicly available on GitHub, and the prize is recorded on-chain. The award covers mathematical progress made from January 1, 2026, onwards; those who complete formal verification of previously solved problems afterward can also win.

The founder of TRON, Justin Sun, announced the establishment of the "Justin Sun Award," which currently focuses only on mathematics. He stated that the award follows the problem rather than the individual, with no annual meeting, nominations, or age restrictions; each problem has two columns for signatures, one for the prover and one for the person who formalizes the proof and writes it into the machine. Both can be the same person, or they can be a person, AI, or a person using AI. The condition for triggering the prize is that the machine verifies the proof from the first line to the last line without error. Once verification is passed, the names in the two columns become the prize owners for that problem.The rules also include: before machine verification, if the mathematical community has accepted a human proof, it can be listed first, with the prize remaining unchanged, and the status being "Proven, awaiting formalization." The prize in the proof column is only awarded to problems that are solved after being listed; for problems that were already solved at the time of listing, the prover is still credited, but the prize is only awarded to the person who completes the formalization, not retroactively for the history of mathematics. The list of problems is determined by Justin Sun's signature for the listed problems and pricing; once listed, the price can only increase, and money can only be exchanged, not refunded. Mistakes in the problems will still be paid, and they will be re-listed afterward; beyond pricing, verification, payment, and naming, he does not participate in voting.Justin Sun stated that the focus of public welfare will shift to this award, with the initial prize pool already deposited into the blockchain, with the address and balance made public. He only retains the right to continue injecting funds; the award proof and prize distribution will also be made public on the chain. He mentioned that naming it after a person is to avoid name changes due to institutional changes and expressed that wealth comes from mathematics, hoping to "come from mathematics and return to mathematics."

According to Techstartups, Dutch AI chip startup Euclyd has completed over 200 million euros (approximately 231 million dollars) in Series A funding, led jointly by Samsung, Somerset Capital Partners, EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund, and Innovation Industries.Euclyd was founded in 2024 by Bernardo Kastrup and Atul Sinha, headquartered in Eindhoven, focusing on the field of AI inference, aiming to replace GPU solutions with self-developed chips and memory architectures to reduce AI inference energy consumption and per Token costs. Former ASML CEO Peter Wennink will serve as the chairman of the company's board.

The Sun Wukong ecosystem will hold a deep roundtable discussion themed "AI Enters the Agent Era: As Model Capabilities Continue to Break Through, What Will the Next Competition Shift From 'Stronger Models' To?" on September 15 at 8 PM at X Space.This event will focus on the shift in AI competition amid the gradual generalization of foundational large model inference capabilities, exploring the core trend of the industry evolving from "competing model parameters" to "competing Agent automation execution capabilities, computing power scheduling, and on-chain interaction ecology." Invited industry KOLs will jointly analyze how Agents transition from passive response to autonomous decision-making and execution, and how this transformation will reshape the integration of application layers and infrastructure.

Interface News has exclusively learned from the supply chain that Apple has accepted Samsung Electronics' quote for storage chips in the first quarter of 2027: DRAM is close to $2.0 per Gb, and NAND flash is close to $0.33 per Gb, an increase of 30%-40% compared to the quotes in the third quarter of this year.Interface News has reached out to Apple for confirmation regarding this news, but there has been no response at the time of publication.

According to the Chosun Ilbo report on September 15, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix's third-quarter operating profit consensus has been raised again within three months. Based on reports from major brokerages and overseas investment banks, Samsung Electronics' estimated operating profit for the third quarter is approximately 114 trillion won, an increase of 12.2836 trillion won (12%) from 101.9052 trillion won three months ago, and a 28% increase from 89.4 trillion won in the second quarter. SK Hynix's estimate for the third quarter is 78.8035 trillion won, a 4% increase from 75.7249 trillion won three months ago, and a 30% increase from 60.5426 trillion won in the second quarter.TrendForce expects the fixed transaction prices for general DRAM in the third quarter to rise by 13% to 18% quarter-on-quarter, while NAND flash is expected to rise by 10% to 15%. The securities industry is paying attention to Samsung Electronics' HBM4 revenue share, which expanded from 5% in the first quarter to about 35% in the second quarter, along with improvements in yield rates. SK Hynix maintains the largest market share in HBM, but improvements in Samsung's HBM4 mass production may dilute its supply premium. Citigroup Securities has lowered SK Hynix's third-quarter operating profit estimate from 76.7 trillion won to 74 trillion won due to the strengthening of the won. Micron will announce its fourth-quarter results for fiscal year 2026 (June to August) on the 30th, with revenue guidance of $49 billion to $51 billion.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Qualcomm are jointly developing organic bridge technology for 2.1D packaging, with related development and validation ongoing for over a year. The organic bridge is similar to the silicon bridge used in Intel's EMIB but is made with organic materials and produced using substrate processes to connect multiple semiconductor chips within the same package.Samsung Electro-Mechanics embeds the organic bridge in FC-BGA substrates with grooves, connecting Qualcomm chips and evaluating performance and reliability. Qualcomm is considering using it for large multi-chip semiconductors in data centers and applied for related patents in October 2024. Samsung Electro-Mechanics is also developing this technology in parallel with several other customers.The organic bridge aims for 5 to 7 layers of redistribution layers, with line widths and spacings of 1.5 to 2 microns, and vias of 4 to 5 microns, achieving a pattern density of 500 to 1000 per millimeter between chips. Samsung Electro-Mechanics is self-manufacturing and evaluating samples while also assessing external suppliers and collaborating with Samsung Electronics' wafer foundry for packaging evaluations.

The Bank of Korea recently reviewed the reasons for the fluctuations of the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) in the "Monetary and Credit Policy Report for September 2026." The report shows that as the KOSPI continues to rise, the contribution rates of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to the index's increase have rapidly increased.Especially during the process in June this year when the KOSPI surged from 8000 points to 9000 points, the contribution rates of these two stocks to the index's rise reached as high as 99%.

According to foreign media reports, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix rejected a prepayment proposal for electricity bills put forward by the Korea Electric Power Corporation. The proposal originally required the two companies to pay electricity bills in advance to fund the construction of the power grid for a new technology cluster. Utility companies across Asia are struggling to keep up with the growing demand from the semiconductor and artificial intelligence industries due to tight funding.The Korea Electric Power Corporation's proposal is estimated by local media to total 250 trillion won, equivalent to five years' worth of electricity bills. A spokesperson for the Korea Electric Power Corporation stated via text message, "The two companies ultimately rejected the proposal from the Korea Electric Power Corporation." According to local media reports, the two chip manufacturers are concerned about the uncertainty of whether the current semiconductor boom can be sustained over the next five years.

According to Politico, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer arranged a Democratic caucus meeting to discuss the Clarity Act on Sunday evening.The landmark cryptocurrency bill will face a Senate vote on Tuesday.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring on-chain data, significant capital movements are predicted in the Polymarket market. A large whale invested $95,499.3 in a single bet on "Arsenal FC" in the "Sunderland AFC vs. Arsenal FC" event. Based on the current transaction price, the latest corresponding winning probability for this bet is 39%.

According to The Bell, Samsung Electronics' foundry division has delayed its contract for application processor foundry production with Qualcomm due to differences in production unit prices, and both parties have failed to narrow the price gap, prolonging negotiations. There have been no significant technical issues, and the currently discussed 2-nanometer process has received a considerable degree of stabilization evaluation.Industry sources indicate that the Qualcomm AP foundry using Samsung's 2-nanometer process may be postponed until next year, and it is unclear whether production can commence within this year. Qualcomm had previously entrusted advanced AP production to Samsung before 2021, and Samsung has been continuously striving to regain this business in recent years, having secured clients such as Tesla and Broadcom.Informed sources state that the contract delay has made it difficult for Samsung to produce APs for Qualcomm this year, and both parties may turn to discuss the next generation of products. After acquiring strategic clients, Samsung is no longer willing to accept low-price orders as it did in the past.

KB Securities released a report on September 11, indicating that Samsung Electronics' HBM market share is expected to increase from 33% in the second quarter to 40% in the fourth quarter, mainly due to HBM4 sales in the third quarter growing more than three times quarter-on-quarter, and HBM4 is expected to account for over 60% of its total HBM sales in the second half of the year.Samsung Electronics has established comprehensive mass production of HBM4, supplied HBM4E samples to core customers, adopted the HBM5 architecture with 1c core bare chips and 2-nanometer base bare chips, and outlined the roadmap for the next-generation ZHBM. In terms of its foundry business, the 4-nanometer yield has stabilized above 80%, and the 2-nanometer GAA yield has rapidly increased to over 70%. KB Securities analyst Kim Dong-Won stated that the foundry business is expected to turn profitable starting in the third quarter, and the 2-nanometer yield may help it secure orders from major U.S. clients within the year.