Nvidia Weighs Cutting HBM in Rubin Ultra to Trim Costs

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an "AI-based personalized news recommendation and summary service" developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news items by reader type.

1. Amid Memory Shortage, Will Nvidia Reduce HBM Capacity?

- Key Summary: Nvidia is reviewing a plan to install less HBM capacity than originally planned in its next-generation GPU Rubin Ultra, US IT specialty outlet The Information reported on the 6th. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang last year announced at a developer conference that 1 TB (terabyte) of HBM4E would be installed per GPU, but the memory capacity of some samples currently under testing came to just 192 GB and 256 GB. This falls short of even the maximum capacity of HBM4 for Rubin currently in mass production (288 GB), and some samples are said to use HBM4, a version one generation earlier. There is also a reaction that while lowering the memory specifications affects performance, the lower price could be an advantage for customers seeking to cut costs.

2. 54 Trillion Won for Yongin and Cheongju Fabs; SK hynix Speeds Up Mega Investment

- Key Summary: SK hynix decided on the 7th, following a board resolution, to invest a total of 54.3 trillion won—35.2 trillion won and 19.1 trillion won respectively—in the construction of the second fab (Y2) at the Yongin semiconductor cluster and the Cheongju M17 fab. Y2 will break ground in July next year and begin operations with the opening of its first clean room in June 2029. The 35.2 trillion won allocated to Y2 is limited to fab construction costs, and adding the subsequent introduction of equipment worth about 120 trillion won, more than 150 trillion won will be executed for Y2 alone. Cheongju M17 aims to begin construction in February next year and open its first clean room in December 2028. Meanwhile, the company signaled it will announce a shareholder return plan including additional dividends and treasury stock cancellation during the third quarter, and decided on a cash dividend of 375 won per common share as its second-quarter dividend.

3. US Solar Tariffs Block Chinese Dumping; Hanwha's 'Solar Hub' Shines

- Key Summary: US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on the 6th setting a minimum import price (MIP) on polysilicon and derivative products and imposing an additional 15% tariff. Under this measure based on Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, a price floor of $21 per kg applies to polysilicon and $0.38 per W (watt) to solar modules, taking effect December 4 US Eastern time. Chinese polysilicon, which had been at the $5–7 per kg level, would have to bear a tariff of up to 200–320% to meet the standard. Hanwha Solutions, which has invested more than 3 trillion won in its Solar Hub including its Cartersville plant in Georgia, US, and OCI Holdings, which is expected to secure pricing negotiation power, are mentioned as beneficiary companies.

4. S&P500 Momentum Strategy Shines in Volatile Market; Return of 22.95% Since Year Start

- Key Summary: The KIWOOM US S&P500 Momentum ETF (exchange-traded fund) recorded a return of 22.95% since the start of the year as of the previous day, Koscom ETF CHECK tallied on the 7th. This exceeds the S&P500 index (12.42%) over the same period by more than 10 percentage points, and is also 6.42 percentage points higher than the Nasdaq 100 index (16.53%). This product compactly includes only the top 100 stocks with superior returns relative to volatility over the past year among S&P500 constituents, and conducts rebalancing (portfolio reconstruction) twice a year in March and September. In the March rebalancing, it raised the information technology (IT) sector weighting from 33.2% to 44.4% and reduced the financial sector from 19.5% to 6.3%, newly adding Micron as its top holding, and the industry is paying attention to the next regular rebalancing scheduled for September.