Analysts have increased their price targets for Micron Technology due to rising demand for AI infrastructure, with Stifel raising its target to $300 and UBS to $295, citing strong memory pricing and market momentum, as Micron shifts focus towards enterprise markets and benefits from AI-driven growth.
High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is crucial for AI performance, powering the fastest GPUs and accelerators. Industry leaders like Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix are advancing HBM technology with HBM4 and HBM4E, which promise higher capacities and speeds to support next-generation AI models. HBM4 is expected to arrive around 2026, with HBM4E following in 2027, enabling even more powerful AI hardware.
Samsung has developed the industry's fastest LPDDR5X DRAM, offering 10.7Gbps performance, 30% more capacity, and 25% higher power efficiency. This innovation is optimized for AI applications and is expected to expand into various sectors including PCs, accelerators, servers, and automobiles. The LPDDR5X is designed to meet the increasing demand for low-power, high-performance memory in the on-device AI era, with mass production scheduled to begin in the second half of the year.
Micron has unveiled its roadmap for upcoming memory innovations, including the introduction of HBM4E memory in 2028 with capacities of 48 to 64GB per stack and a bandwidth of 2TB/s. The roadmap also reveals plans for GDDR7 technology in late 2024, bringing a boost in bandwidth to 32 Gbps, and subsequent higher bandwidth of 36 Gbps in 2027 and 2028. Additionally, Micron plans to introduce MCRDIMM memory in 2025 with capacities ranging from 128 to 256GB and a transfer speed of 8800 MT/s.
Samsung has announced Shinebolt, its HBM3E memory, which offers higher capacities and greater memory bandwidth than its predecessor, HBM3. Shinebolt will have a maximum capacity of 36GB and a memory clockspeed of 9.8Gbps/pin, making it faster and more efficient than previous HBM memory. Samsung also provided an update on its GDDR7 memory, which will feature a switch to PAM3 encoding, allowing for improved memory transfer rates. GDDR7 is expected to have 50% lower standby power consumption than GDDR6. Both Shinebolt and GDDR7 are targeted at high-end processors, particularly in the AI market.
Researchers at Tohoku University have made advancements in phase change memory by using sputtering to create niobium telluride (NbTe4), a material with superior storage and thermal capabilities. NbTe4 exhibits an ultra-low melting point and high crystallization temperature, offering reduced reset energies and improved thermal stability. It demonstrated a significant reduction in operation energy and fast-switching speed, positioning it as a promising next-generation phase change memory material.