SK Hynix Puts President Ahn Hyun at the Helm of Americas Operations
SK Hynix has appointed President Ahn Hyun, an HBM (high-performance AI semiconductor memory) development expert, to head its newly created Americas division as part of an executive reshuffle on the 30th of last month, stepping up efforts to expand technology partnerships with major U.S. big tech companies and strengthen its competitiveness in winning orders for next-generation AI memory. Samsung Electronics is following the same path: in December 2024, it named Executive Vice President Cho Sang-yeon, who led solution development in its memory business, as head of the Americas operations for its Device Solutions (DS) division. Cho is a technology expert who has specialized in memory solution development.
Behind the two companies' decisions to put technical personnel on the front lines of their U.S. businesses lies a structural shift in the HBM market. Traditionally, memory makers developed standardized products with fixed specifications and performance, then negotiated supply terms with customers. As the importance of 'customized HBM,' which fine-tunes detailed memory functions to match the design architecture of AI accelerators and the characteristics of the data they process, has grown, competition for orders is being restructured around technology collaboration.
A representative example is 'NVHBM,' unveiled by Nvidia in August. Nvidia proposed a design that moves some memory control functions—previously handled by AI accelerators—to the base die at the bottom of the HBM, raising bandwidth by up to 30% compared with standard HBM4E. The base die is a core component located at the very bottom of stacked memory chips, responsible for data communication and control. This change has broadened the scope of collaboration between memory makers and AI chip designers, extending beyond supplying finished products to jointly discussing chip architecture, power efficiency, and data processing methods from the early stages of development.
SK Hynix has already formalized this direction. At TSMC's technology symposium held in the U.S. last April, Ahn said that memory companies are evolving beyond their role as simple product suppliers into 'creators' who work with customers from the earliest stages of chip design to devise optimal solutions. On the earnings call for the third quarter last month, he also noted the growing importance of HBM tailored to each customer's system and workload characteristics, saying the company is working closely with major customers on related projects.
SK Hynix plans to further reinforce its U.S. operations and workforce through follow-up personnel changes and organizational restructuring in early next month. The company is continuing to build out its local presence amid an HBM order race that is being reshaped around technology collaboration.
