Korea’s memory chip exports to Taiwan jumped over 225 percent in the first half of this year compared to the previous year, driven by strong demand for high-performance High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) products due to the rapid growth of the global AI market, according to data released on Sunday.
Exports of memory chips to Taiwan reached $4.26 billion during this period, marking a 225.7 percent increase from the previous year, significantly outpacing the overall growth in Korea’s memory chip exports, which saw an 88.7 percent rise, based on data from the industry ministry and the Korea International Trade Association.
Taiwan emerged as the third-largest importer of Korean memory chips, climbing two spots ahead of Vietnam and the United States.
Analysts attribute this sharp increase in exports to Taiwan to SK hynix, a leading Korean chipmaker, supplying HBM products to U.S. AI chip giant Nvidia, which assembles its AI accelerators at Taiwan’s TSMC.
Currently, SK hynix is the only Korean company providing HBM products, a crucial component of AI accelerators, to Nvidia.
“We can assume the sharp increase in exports is related to SK hynix’s supplies for TSMC’s final packaging [of AI accelerators],” Kim Yang-paeng, a researcher at the Korea Institutes for Industrial Economics & Trade, said.
Last month, the Korean chipmaker said in an earnings call its HBM sales soared more than 250 percent on year in the second quarter, noting it expects a 300 percent increase in HBM revenue in 2024 from the previous year.