Industry insiders revealed that the production preparation of Compute Express Link (CXL) memory has been technically improved, but due to insufficient market demand, its business process has been stopped. Korean media Business Korea believes that this shows the challenges facing major operators such as Samsung and SK Hynix in promoting the commercialization of next-generation memory technology under the trend of AI semiconductors led by NVIDIA.
In recent years, Samsung and SK Hynix have been committed to the commercialization of CXL and Processing In Memory (simplified PIM) technology. Samsung's original expected CXL memory market to grow rapidly in the second half of last year, but the quality certification process with major customers has not been completed yet.
On the other hand, SK Hynix has been continuously investing in PIM technology since 2022, but due to the slow progress of the ecological system expansion, it has failed to advance to the actual product stage. However, industry experts still emphasize the need to establish related biosystems and expect the AI memory demand structure to gradually develop towards diversification.
NVIDIA currently promotes a large demand for high-frequency wide memory (HBM), and most packaging and coupling equipment orders are preferred for the advancement of HBM technology, thus delaying the application of CXL and PIM technology that originally wanted to supplement HBM in terms of power consumption efficiency and expansion. Semiconductor equipment operators said, "HBM demand is too strong, resulting in most packaging and coupling equipment orders being occupied by HBM."
According to IoT Analytics data, NVIDIA's market share in the AI data center GPU market last year reached about 92%, making it difficult for AMD and Broadcom to catch up in the short term. In addition, Chinese companies are rapidly advancing with government support, making things more complicated. The industry is worried that China may be the first to complete the commercialization of CXL and PIM technology, thereby changing the global competition pattern.
A crystal-free circular manufacturer believes that the government should actively intervene and establish demonstration bases to maintain continuous technological development through national projects, even if market demand has not yet been formed.
Customer said that although the technical volume is ready, the overall commercialization process is still in a state of suspension because of the low intentions of customers. Industry insiders suggest that we should take the initiative to accelerate the construction of an ecological system that is conducive to the implementation of next-generation memory technologies such as CXL and PIM.
CXL Memory Commercialization Stalled Due to Lack of Demand Amid AI Semiconductor Boom Extended reading: The number is called "not relying on overseas supply chains"! Longxin 3C6000 series processors are launched The semiconductor industry is facing a serious talent shortage! By 2030, millions of people will be seen