HBM Architect

SK Hynix is seeking US approval to ship more chipmaking equipment to China, and ties a planned US factory to that approval, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Its shares have fallen 20% this month, heading for their worst month since the July Nasdaq listing. Its US unit, Solidigm, wants to install NAND flash memory equipment at SK Hynix's Dalian plant in China. It is seeking an export licence for tools from Lam Research, Applied Materials, and KLA Corp. Expanded output in Dalian would help fund a new US NAND factory. The Commerce Department revoked licence exemptions for SK Hynix and Samsung last year. SK Hynix holds a 2026 licence for Dalian with limits on equipment quantities; approval for 2027 is pending. Chip stocks fell worldwide on hotter US inflation, AI spending worries, and Chinese competition.

Micron Technology has become the 11th largest company in the world, with a market cap of $1.12 trillion, driven by demand for memory chips in AI data centres, smartphones, and PCs. One analyst argues two rivals could overtake it within five years. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), valued at $970 billion, saw second-quarter revenue rise 50% year over year to $11.5 billion. Data centre revenue jumped 107% to $6.7 billion, and AMD's share of the server processor market rose to 34.5% from 27.3%. SK Hynix, valued at $780 billion, holds 50% of the high-bandwidth memory market against Micron's 18%. It trades at 11 times earnings against Micron's 25, and analysts expect long-term earnings-per-share growth of 82%, versus 65% for Micron.

Memory giants plunge on Chinese CXMT's technological advances. Memory makers came under pressure Monday after Chinese company ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) announced a technological breakthrough that could intensify competition in a market currently dominated by three players. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell 4.4% and 4.5%, respectively, in Seoul, while US-based Micron was down about 4% on Wall Street. Published on 10/13/2026 at 02:41 am EDT MarketScreener.com CXMT said it had made significant progress in developing a new DRAM memory architecture known as "4F[2]", which Samsung and SK Hynix are also working on. The technology could reduce the area occupied by each memory cell by one-third compared with the current 6F[2] architecture, potentially increasing storage density by 30% to 50% over the same area. The Chinese manufacturer is relying in particular on a new vertical transistor architecture designed to limit power leakage, and plans to launch "DDR5 RDIMM" modules for servers by the end of the year. The announcement comes as the world's three leading memory makers benefit from a sharp increase in memory prices, driven in particular by the explosion in demand from artificial intelligence data centers. CXMT's progress could therefore encourage the arrival of more competitive Chinese capacity and, over time, intensify pressure on prices. The Chinese manufacturer is already gaining ground, with its share of the global DRAM market rising from 7.6% to 9.5% between the first and second quarters, according to TrendForce. The immediate impact of the breakthrough nevertheless remains uncertain, as the first products may incorporate this architecture only partially, while CXMT still needs to demonstrate its ability to produce in large volumes and meet server reliability requirements. Samsung, which has also unveiled a 4F[2] prototype, has not provided a firm timeline for commercial production. (C) MarketScreener.com - 2026