Adds analyst comment, background throughout

By Heekyong Yang

SEOUL, May 29 (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics 005930.KS on Friday said it started shipping samples of its latest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chip to customers, pulling ahead of rivals in distributing a new version of the product critical to AI data centers and sending its shares higher.

The South Korean tech company said the new chip, the 12-layer HBM4E, is more than 20% faster than its previous-generation HBM4 products.

Samsung said the chip uses its latest 1c DRAM process technology - sixth-generation, 10-nanometer-class DRAM - alongside Samsung's 4-nanometer foundry logic base die.

The rollout is part of Samsung's efforts to regain momentum in the HBM market after falling behind rivals like SK Hynix 000660.KS and Micron MU.O in supplying advanced artificial intelligence memory chips, particularly to Nvidia NVDA.O.

The move also comes just three months after Samsung began shipping its HBM4 chips to customers in February, showcasing the company's efforts to strengthen its position in the next-generation AI memory market by supplying samples of its latest products.

In April, Samsung said it planned to ship the first samples of its HBM4E chips in the second quarter.

Samsung's customers include major AI players like AMD AMD.O, Nvidia and Google GOOGL.O, among others, as demand surges for advanced memory chips used in AI servers and processors.

EARLY MOVER ADVANTAGE

Shares of Samsung Electronics rose as much as 6.5% in morning trading, compared with a 2.3% rise for the benchmark KOSPI .KS11. Shares of SK Hynix were trading up 1.2% at 0207 GMT.

Analysts said the gains reflected Samsung's latest HBM announcement and optimism over the outlook for its AI chip business, after Anthropic named Samsung a strategic infrastructure partner in its latest funding round.

Anthropic said it had raised funding at a post-money valuation of $965 billion, naming Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix as partners whose technologies play a critical role in the supply of memory, storage and logic chips.

Samsung was the only one of the three companies specifically referenced for its logic chip capabilities, raising investor expectations that the relationship could eventually lead to additional foundry business following Samsung's $16.5 billion supply deal with Tesla TSLA.O, unveiled last year.

"In the HBM market, early movers tend to secure the bulk of orders, so gaining market share in the initial stages is critical," said Jeff Kim, head of research at KB Securities-Jefferies.

Kim noted that Samsung had entered the HBM3 and HBM3E markets later than rivals, which limited the volume of orders it was able to secure.

"But if Samsung successfully completes the qualification process for HBM4E, the HBM vendor structure, which has largely centred on SK Hynix and Micron, that could shift toward SK Hynix and Samsung, considering Samsung's manufacturing capacity," Kim added.

SK Hynix led the global HBM market with a 57% share in the fourth quarter of 2025, followed by Samsung at 22% and Micron at 21%, according to Counterpoint Research.

Kim also said Samsung could benefit in the foundry business, as Taiwan's TSMC 2330.TW is expected to have its advanced-node capacity fully booked for the next several years.

"That raises expectations that Samsung, as one of the few companies capable of producing advanced chips, could win more orders for advanced-node manufacturing," he said.