Samsung will use TSMC's 3nm process for Nvidia's custom HBM base dies

Korea's Seoul Economic Daily reported in an exclusive on October 18, 2026 that Samsung Electronics will have the base die of Nvidia's next custom high-bandwidth memory made on TSMC's 3nm process. According to the paper, citing industry sources, Nvidia asked all three suppliers of its custom NVHBM memory, Samsung, SK hynix and Micron, to build the base die on TSMC 3nm and to use the sixth-generation 1c DRAM process for the core dies. NVHBM, unveiled in August, is based on the HBM4E design.

Nvidia's reasoning is consistency: if each supplier builds the parts differently, it is harder to get the same performance, and each version needs its own validation. Samsung's chip division accepted after an internal review. That is a change for Samsung, which has so far made both the memory core dies and the logic base die itself as a one-stop supplier. It is the first time the two companies have worked together at the HBM manufacturing stage, after an earlier tie-up on packaging compatibility four years ago.

Samsung will keep its in-house approach for standard HBM products and for custom HBM from other customers such as AMD. It is also checking whether its own foundry could make NVHBM base dies if demand outgrows TSMC's capacity.

Why it matters

Nvidia is now telling its memory suppliers how to build their chips, a sign of how much control it holds over the AI hardware supply chain.

Source: Seoul Economic Daily