Silicon Valley "Fried Chicken Talks": SK Hynix Chairman meets Jensen Huang to secure 55% HBM4 market share and initiate AI infrastructure collaboration

In a fried chicken restaurant in Silicon Valley, there may not be exquisite tableware, but it is home to a business worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

According to South Korean media reports, on February 5 local time, SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won met with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang for an informal "Chimaek" (chicken and beer) discussion at a Korean fried chicken restaurant called "99 Chicken" in Silicon Valley.

Observers say that the discussions between the two may not be limited to negotiations on the supply of sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4), but also include strategic cooperation in building the next-generation AI data centers.

Interestingly, reports indicate that the privacy and intimacy of this meeting far exceeded that of ordinary business negotiations, with attendees including core executives from SK Hynix, Choi Tae-won's second daughter, Choi Min-jung, a representative of IntegralHealth, as well as Jensen Huang's daughter, Madison Huang, a senior director in NVIDIA's robotics division.

Analysts believe that this "family-style" social setting sends a strong signal: the relationship between SK and NVIDIA is upgrading from a business partnership to a closer strategic alliance.

Historically, whenever Choi Tae-won and Jensen Huang meet, the semiconductor market tends to experience significant waves. Their meeting in May 2021 directly led to the formation of the "AI Triangle Alliance" among SK, NVIDIA, and TSMC.

This time, industry insiders believe that Choi Tae-won's visit is not only a commitment to timely delivery of HBM4 but also focuses on SK Group's strategic layout for transforming into a "comprehensive AI solution provider." Relevant personnel in the semiconductor industry stated:

This is a signal that SK Group is officially entering the next-generation AI infrastructure market leveraging HBM.

HBM4 Supply Landscape, SK Hynix Commits to Unobstructed Delivery

The focus of this meeting was on ensuring the supply of HBM4. NVIDIA's next-generation AI accelerator "Vera Rubin," set to launch in the second half of the year, will use HBM4 with a capacity of 288 gigabytes per chip.

Since HBM production takes about four months, plus an additional two to three months for TSMC packaging, the entire cycle lasts six to seven months, which deepens NVIDIA's reliance on SK Hynix, the industry leader in capacity.

At the end of last year, SK Hynix reached an agreement with NVIDIA to supply more than 55% of the HBM4 demand, and is currently optimizing performance. Choi Tae-won promised Jensen Huang "unobstructed supply" during the meeting.

Reports indicate that although SK Hynix's HBM4 uses relatively older processes such as 12-nanometer wafer fabrication and 1b DRAM, its performance is comparable to Samsung Electronics' products that use 4-nanometer wafer fabrication and 10-nanometer sixth-generation DRAM.

The market landscape has changed this year. Samsung Electronics passed NVIDIA's quality tests for 12-layer HBM3E products in September last year and has entered the mass production phase of HBM4 this month.

Samsung's HBM4 transmission speed is 11.7 Gb per second, exceeding NVIDIA's requirement of 10 to 11 Gb per second, breaking SK Hynix's near-monopoly position on HBM3E 12-layer products last year The industry expects that both parties also discussed cooperation plans for the seventh generation of HBM (HBM4E) and customized HBM (cHBM), which will officially launch in the market in 2027.

From "Selling Memory" to "Selling AI Infrastructure"

If supplying HBM4 without barriers is about "defending the territory," then Choi Tae-won’s true ambition during this visit is to "conquer the territory" by entering the AI data center infrastructure market.

Choi Tae-won is pushing the SK Group to transform into a "comprehensive AI solution provider," and the discussions with Jensen Huang are believed to involve collaboration on multiple levels, including AI semiconductors, servers, and data centers.

The further cooperation between SK Hynix and NVIDIA in the enterprise solid-state drive (eSSD) field is attracting attention.

NVIDIA announced in January this year that it would apply a new memory solution "ICMS" in Vera Rubin, with the entire setup equipped with 9600 terabytes of eSSD, representing a 16-fold increase in demand compared to existing products. This presents a significant opportunity for SK Hynix to expand in the storage field.

Since February 3, Chairman Choi has been holding a series of meetings in the United States with several large technology companies, including NVIDIA and Meta.

According to reports, the two sides may also have discussed the next generation of server memory modules—SoCamm (low-power DRAM modules for servers) and flash memory supply—following high bandwidth memory. Semiconductor industry insiders pointed out:

SoCamm is the next battleground for changing the power architecture of AI servers, and SK Group is leveraging HBM as a powerful tool to officially enter the next generation of AI infrastructure market.

SK Hynix has renamed its U.S. flash subsidiary Solidigm to "AI Company," making it a platform specifically responsible for SK Group's AI investment and solution business.

The business scope not only covers SK Hynix's AI semiconductor business but also integrates SK Telecom's AI technology and solution capabilities, creating a full-chain service system from AI data center design to semiconductor and server delivery. There are even plans to advance empirical projects for data centers in North America within the year.

This meeting reveals signs of Choi Tae-won introducing this strategic concept to NVIDIA. Industry observers believe that both parties may have discussed specific plans for SK Group to provide comprehensive AI solutions to NVIDIA.

This informal meeting at 99 Chicken restaurant could become the starting point for another significant restructuring of the global semiconductor industry chain following the "AI Triangle Alliance" in 2021