Samsung’s New Gold Mine: AI Memory

Samsung shares made a powerful surge upward: the stock jumped roughly +5.4% and reached a new all-time high after local media reports about pricing negotiations for the company’s newest artificial intelligence memory chip. The focus is on the next generation of high-speed HBM4 memory, which according to Chosun Ilbo could be priced around $700 per unit – about 30% more expensive than the previous generation.

And this is not simply a story of “Samsung raising prices.” This is a story about how the AI industry is entering a new stage, where memory is becoming just as strategic a resource as processors themselves. In the era of artificial intelligence, it is not only the GPU makers who win, but also those who provide the GPUs with fuel. And HBM memory is literally the fuel of modern neural networks.

HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) is now one of the most critical components for training and running large-scale models. Without it, even the most powerful graphics processors turn into a sports car without gasoline: the potential is there, but acceleration is impossible. That is why HBM4 is becoming a golden asset, and the market reacts instantly.

The possible $700 price per module signals several things at once. First, Samsung is so confident in demand that it can dictate terms. Second, margins in this segment are rising sharply. And third, the company is positioning itself at the hottest point of the technology market – AI infrastructure.

At the same time, optimism across the sector is strengthening. Nvidia received an additional boost after news that Meta agreed to deploy “millions” of AI processors over the coming years. Apple, meanwhile, is accelerating the development of new wearable devices, shifting toward AI-oriented hardware. Together, these developments form one powerful trend: AI is no longer a separate industry, but a foundational technology around which the next global growth cycle is being built.

And here is the key question: why do Nvidia’s and Apple’s successes automatically become a growth driver for Samsung?

Because both giants are among Samsung’s largest customers, and their investments in AI translate directly into revenue for the Korean corporation.

Nvidia is one of the world’s biggest consumers of high-bandwidth memory. For its Blackwell GPUs and future Vera Rubin chips, Nvidia purchases massive volumes of HBM3E and is now moving toward HBM4. The more accelerators Nvidia sells, the more memory Samsung must produce and supply.

Moreover, even though GPU manufacturing is largely concentrated at TSMC today, Samsung remains an important partner in integration, advanced packaging, and supporting infrastructure solutions. Nvidia continues to generate billions for Samsung not only through memory demand, but also through broader infrastructure cooperation.

Apple is the second pillar of this story. Many people forget that Apple and Samsung are both competitors and partners – and their partnership is enormous. Samsung Display is the primary supplier of OLED panels for iPhones since the iPhone X. Apple buys huge volumes of these high-quality screens, and every new upgrade cycle means fresh orders for Samsung.

In addition, Apple purchases DRAM modules and NAND flash memory from Samsung for its smartphones and other devices. At different times, Samsung has also supplied Apple with other critical components, from sensors to printed circuit boards for chip connections.

In essence, Apple sells iPhones – Samsung sells the “insides” of those iPhones. And as Apple accelerates its shift toward AI-driven devices, Samsung benefits from rising demand for the most advanced and expensive components. That is why Nvidia’s and Apple’s growth becomes Samsung’s growth through the supply chain. It is the classic “gold rush” effect: the winners are not only those mining gold, but also those selling the shovels.

It is no surprise that the market is pricing in a new level of expectations for Samsung. Since the beginning of 2026, Samsung shares have risen nearly +50%, significantly outperforming major US indices, FAANG, and MAG7 – the very “locomotives” that usually pull markets forward. The performance looks almost unreal:

• today: about +4.8%
• 5 days: +13.5%
• 1 month: +27%
• 6 months: over +170%
• 1 year: over +220%

Samsung is now rising so strongly that gold and silver are starting to nervously adjust their crowns. And most importantly, this is not just a speculative spike. It reflects the fact that Samsung is finally being seen not as a “smartphone manufacturer,” but as one of the key infrastructure players of the new AI economy.

If AI is the new oil, then HBM memory is the pipeline through which it flows. And Samsung today finds itself in the role of a company controlling one of the most essential parts of that system. So the stock rally is not an accident. It is the market voting for a future in which Samsung becomes one of the leading suppliers of the hardware foundation for artificial intelligence.