Samsung Electronics (005930 KS) is seeking to price next year's HBM4 supply at more than three times current HBM3E levels, offering major customers a price in the mid-to-high USD 4/Gb range versus around USD 1.5/Gb for HBM3E, Maeil Business reports

Memory is a negotiated-contract business, and opening asks on next-generation HBM have historically been set aggressively high before qualification volumes, yields, and competitive responses pull the final blended price down; the gap between the first reported offer and the settled contract price has been a recurring feature of prior HBM generation transitions. The distinction worth drawing is between a list-style anchor price and the realized average selling price across the customer base, since it is the latter, weighted by who actually qualifies for HBM4 supply, that feeds margin models. Samsung's position here carries its own history: it has previously trailed the peer set in qualifying successive HBM generations at the lead customer, so an aggressive ask reads partly as a signal of confidence in its qualification progress and partly as an attempt to recoup lost ground on pricing after selling prior generations at a discount. The transmission channel runs through DRAM makers' blended ASPs and capital allocation, with knock-on read-across to the logic-chip buyers whose accelerator roadmaps assume HBM4 availability and cost. What is worth watching next is the counterparty response, whether rival suppliers match or undercut the offer, and any confirmation of qualification status at the major GPU customers, since a high ask without qualification is a negotiating position rather than revenue. Reported by a single domestic outlet, so confirmation from further sourcing is the first tell.