Chinese firms stockpile high-end Samsung chips as they await new US curbs

Chinese tech giants including Huawei and Baidu as well as startups are stockpiling high bandwidth memory (HBM) semiconductors from Samsung Electronics in anticipation of US curbs on exports of the chips to China, three sources said.

The companies have ramped up their buying of the artificial intelligence (AI) capable semiconductors since early this year, helping China account for about 30 per cent of Samsung’s HBM chip revenue in the first half of 2024, one of the sources said.