SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung announced the new vision of “Full Stack AI Memory Creator” at the “SK AI Summit 2025”, held in Seoul on November 3. “SK hynix has been playing the role of a Full Stack Memory Provider by supplying products aligned with customer needs and time. Moving forward, the company aims to exceed customers’ expectation by actively collaborating within the ecosystem and by solving the customers’ hurdles together.” said CEO Kwak.

He emphasized his commitment to preparing for the next AI era saying, “We will become a creator who builds “Full Stack AI Memory” as a co-architect, partner, and eco-contributor.“ CEO Kwak expressed his reflections by incorporating the symbolic meaning of the number “1,” highlighting that over the past year, the company has risen to become the global leader in the memory sector and has also been ranked as the No. 1 most desirable company to work for.

Below are the key points mentioned during the keynote speech. The position and importance of semiconductor memory in the AI era

• As AI adoption accelerates, the data traffic is exploding, and hardware technologies to support it needs to develop rapidly.
• However, memory performance is not keeping pace with processor advancements and various measures are being applied to solve this hurdle known as the “Memory Wall”.
• With the growing importance of semiconductor memory in AI performance, it is evolving from an ordinary component into a “core value product” in the AI industry. In accordance, the performance required for semiconductor memory increased significantly, making it difficult to achieve with traditional approaches.

The new vision of SK hynix to prepare for the next AI era

• Until now, SK hynix has focused on supplying products needed by customers with time-to-market. As a result, the company was able to become a leading global company as a “Full Stack AI Memory Provider”.
• However, as the importance of semiconductor memory grows, we believe the role of a provider will not fulfill the market needs. The new goal for the SK hynix is a “Full Stack AI Memory Creator”.
• “Creator” means that we will solve the customers’ current challenges together, and furthermore, we will exceed customers’ needs through active collaboration within the ecosystem. To this end, the company will build a “Full Stack AI Memory” as a co-architect, partner, and eco-contributor in AI computing

Full Stack AI Memory lineup

• While memory solutions to date have been centered on computing, in the future, it will evolve in ways to diversify and expand the role of memory - enabling more efficient use of computing resources and structurally resolving AI inference bottlenecks. New memory solutions may include SK hynix’s Custom HBM, AI DRAM (AI-D), and AI NAND (AI-N).
• (Custom HBM) As the scope of the AI market is expanding from commodity to inference efficiency and optimization, HBM is also evolving into custom products from conventional products. Custom HBM is a product that integrates certain functions in GPU and ASIC to HBM base to reflect customer needs. This can maximize the performance of GPUs and ASICs, and reduce data transfer power consumption with HBM thereby enhancing system efficiency.
• (AI-D) DRAM has developed with focus on commodity and compatibility. However, SK hynix is now further segmenting the DRAM to prepare memory solutions best suited to the needs of each segment.
• First, the company is preparing “AI-D O (Optimization)”, a low-power, high-performance DRAM that helps reduce the total cost of ownership and improve operational efficiency. Second, to overcome the Memory Wall, the company is developing “AI-D B (Breakthrough)2”, a solution featuring ultra-high-capacity memory with flexible memory allocation. Finally, from the perspective of expanding applications, it is preparing “AI-D E (Expansion)3” to extend DRAM use cases into fields including robotics, mobility and industrial automation.