Jensen Huang's Nvidia Fast-Tracks Samsung's AI Memory Certification As AI Giant Looks To Catch Up To Demand

Nvidia Corporation NVDA is expediting the certification process of Samsung Electronic Co.’s SSNLF AI memory chips.

What Happened: This information was confirmed by Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, at an event at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on Saturday, reported Bloomberg.

Huang said that Nvidia is evaluating both 8-high and 12-high HBM3E offerings from Samsung.

Notably, the Nvidia CEO did not include Samsung in the list of major partners he mentioned during a post-earnings call with analysts earlier this week.

At that time, Huang highlighted the impressive list of partners including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. TSM, Amphenol APH, SK Hynix HXSCF, Foxconn, Micron Technology Inc. MU, and Dell Technologies DELL.

Nvidia reported third-quarter revenue of $35.1 billion, a 94% increase year-over-year, surpassing the Street consensus estimate of $33.12 billion, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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Why It Matters: This development follows Nvidia’s initial approval of Samsung’s fourth-generation high bandwidth memory in July.

This marked the first time Nvidia approved the use of Samsung's HBM3 chips, albeit for a less advanced Nvidia graphics processing unit (GPU), the H20, specifically designed for the Chinese market.

However, Samsung’s delay in obtaining Nvidia’s certification for AI memory chips has given competitors SK Hynix and Micron an edge in the high-bandwidth memory market.

Nvidia’s new Blackwell AI chips are reportedly facing overheating problems. When asked about it during the earnings call, Huang sidestepped the question and instead highlighted that the supply levels surpassed initial expectations.

Nvidia’s CFO, Colette Kress, also said the company shipped 13,000 GPU samples in the third quarter, including one of the first Blackwell DGX samples to OpenAI.

“Blackwell demand is staggering, and we are racing to scale supply to meet the incredible demand customers are placing on us,” Kress stated during the call.

Price Action: Nvidia shares dropped 3.22% on Friday, closing at $141.95, and saw a further decline of 0.13% in after-hours trading, reaching $141.77 as of the latest update, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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