Samsung, SK Target Memory Bottleneck With Custom Design, 20-Layer Stacking

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

1. Samsung Ports GPU Functions Into HBM; SK hynix Stacks 20 Layers

- Key summary: Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which lead the global HBM market, each presented ways to ease memory bottlenecks to researchers from around the world. Han Sang-wook, a technical leader (TL) on the DRAM design team of Samsung Electronics' memory division, cited the limits of through-silicon via (TSV) and physical layer (PHY) input/output as bottleneck factors blocking bandwidth expansion, and put forward a concept for custom HBM (cHBM) that designs the base die to fit the GPUs and neural processing units (NPUs) of clients such as Nvidia and AMD. Lee Jae-sik, executive vice president of SK hynix America, said that not only HBM performance but also GPUs, packaging and foundry work must be optimized together with clients, and offered changes in structure and materials as a solution for heat dissipation. He also said the company is researching hybrid bonding techniques to stack memory 20 layers high, explaining that this process can narrow TSV circuits and increase core die thickness by 24%.

2. Blocked by the 10% Rule; Samsung Leans Toward Dividends Over Share Cancellation

- Key summary: Even though Samsung Electronics unveiled its largest-ever shareholder return plan, disappointed sellers flooded the market and shares closed down 8.70% at 257,000 won. Samsung Life Insurance (032830.KS) and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance (000810.KS) hold 8.51% and 1.49% of Samsung Electronics common stock, respectively, for a combined total of about 10%. Article 24 of the Act on the Structural Improvement of the Financial Industry requires that a financial institution within the same business group obtain Financial Services Commission approval if it holds 10% or more of another company's voting shares and effectively controls it. At a board meeting on the 21st, Samsung Electronics approved a shareholder return of 90 trillion to 110 trillion won and decided to pay 30 trillion won in cash dividends during the third quarter, but analysts expect the scale of share buybacks and cancellations to reach only 10 trillion to 20 trillion won. This contrasts with SK hynix, which decided to buy about 40 trillion won worth of common stock, or 24.07 million shares, on the open market and cancel all of them. Meanwhile, the KOSPI closed down 3.12% at 6,696.96, as Samsung Electronics' plunge combined with net selling by foreign and institutional investors.

3. A 'Three-Way Combination' of Chip Exports, a Hawkish BOK and Corporate Demand Drives Won Strength

- Key summary: From July 1 to August 21, the won appreciated 11.90% against the dollar, ranking first among surveyed currencies. Given that the second-place Norwegian krone gained 6.03%, the British pound 2.87% and the Japanese yen 2.31%, analysts say this reflects a won-specific strength that is hard to explain by a broad dollar weakness alone. Behind it lies a current account surplus that reached $191 billion in the first half and dollar sales by non-financial private companies of $263.59 billion in the second quarter, up 71.5% from a year earlier. Meanwhile, after the BOK raised its base rate to 2.75% from 2.50% last month, 13 of 20 experts in a Seoul Economic Daily survey forecast a further increase at the Monetary Policy Board meeting on the 27th.

4. Nuclear Plant Continued-Operation Permits Under Review for '10 Years to 20 Years'

- Key summary: The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission are reviewing a plan to grant continued operation of existing nuclear plants in 20-year increments. The reasoning is that existing nuclear facilities must be used to the fullest to handle the medium- to long-term power demand needed for three mega-projects, including a semiconductor fab in the Honam region. For Kori Unit 2, which was granted continued operation late last year, it took three years and seven months from preparing documents such as the periodic safety review (PSR) and radiological environmental assessment report (PER) to passing the commission's screening, leaving the actual additional operating period at only about seven years. The Ministry of Economy and Finance is also reported to have confirmed the exemption from preliminary feasibility studies for 15 national backbone power grid projects worth a combined 14.2 trillion won.

5. "Even 5-MW Facilities Must Be 300 Meters Away"; A Patchwork of Rules Threatens to Choke AI's 'Capillaries'

- Key summary: The Gwacheon City Council in Gyeonggi Province plans to discuss at an extraordinary session on the 27th an urban planning ordinance amendment that would require data centers with 5 MW or more of contracted power to be located 200 to 300 meters away from residential areas or homes. Landowners who received substitute-land compensation in the Juam district and have been preparing projects on business-use land under the current district unit plan are protesting, saying the rules are being changed midway through their projects. There are concerns that if the 5-MW standard is applied, not only ultra-large AI training centers but also edge data centers of around 10 MW would fall within the scope of regulation, potentially leading to longer data transmission distances and higher network costs. Meanwhile, Seoul's Geumcheon-gu required the consent of a majority of residents within a 200-meter radius, while Incheon restricted locations in general residential areas and required city planning committee review for some industrial areas when they are within one kilometer of residential areas, with regulatory approaches differing from region to region.

6. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (329180.KS) to Expand Engine Plant for First Time in 20 Years

- Key summary: As the global AI boom drives a surge in demand for power-generation engines for data centers, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is pushing to expand its engine plant for the first time in about 20 years. Goldman Sachs forecast that global data center power demand in 2030 would be 170% higher than in 2025, and the industry estimates a power shortfall of up to 50 GW per year could occur by 2031, but the entire power-generation engine industry's supply capacity stands at only around 10 GW per year. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries recently signed a contract to supply the U.S. firm Coban Energy Group with power-generation equipment based on 9.6-MW HiMSEN engines, totaling 1,000 MW and worth 956 billion won. The expansion will focus on the more profitable four-stroke (medium-speed) HiMSEN engines. Onshore power plant revenue accounts for only 5% of the company's total, but its profit margin reaches 23%.