SK Hynix announced March 10 that it had successfully developed a 16Gb LPDDR6 DRAM chip using a 10-nanometer sixth-generation (1c) process. [Provided by SK Hynix]
SK Hynix announced March 10 that it had successfully developed a 16Gb LPDDR6 DRAM chip using a 10-nanometer sixth-generation (1c) process. [Provided by SK Hynix]

SK Hynix plans to begin mass production and shipment of LPDDR (Low Power Double Data Rate) 6, its next-generation low-power mobile DRAM, in the second half of this year. Having completed development of the product in March, SK Hynix intends to supply it first to China's Xiaomi for use in mobile devices. The launch is expected to intensify competition among the three major memory chip makers — Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron — for SOCAMM (System-on-Chip Attached Memory Module), a next-generation low-power memory module for AI servers based on LPDDR.

According to industry sources Tuesday, SK Hynix will move into full-scale LPDDR6 mass production in the second half of this year, with Xiaomi expected to be its first customer. The chip is set to be featured in Xiaomi's next-generation flagship smartphone. SK Hynix's LPDDR6 uses a 10-nanometer sixth-generation (1c) process, improving data processing speed and power efficiency compared with its predecessor.

In March, SK Hynix announced it had completed the world's first product development certification for LPDDR6, saying it would "finish mass production preparations within the first half and begin supplying the product from the second half." On the Xiaomi supply specifically, however, the company said it "cannot confirm details related to customers."

SK Hynix began its relationship with Xiaomi in 2013 by supplying LPDDR3 for some models and has since consistently supplied mobile DRAM through its most recent LPDDR5X.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix currently lead the mobile DRAM market. CXMT, China's largest memory chip maker, which recently listed on the stock exchange, has been closing the gap and now holds a market share comparable to third-place Micron of the United States. Samsung Electronics supplies LPDDR to global Android handset makers, while SK Hynix has a strong presence in the Chinese smartphone segment.

The Xiaomi supply deal is expected to open the door to broader LPDDR6 shipments to other Chinese smartphone makers such as Vivo and Oppo. In the Chinese smartphone market, domestic memory chips from CXMT and others are gaining ground in budget lineups, but flagship models requiring high performance still rely on LPDDR from the three major memory chip makers.

LPDDR is a type of memory chip used primarily in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs. Its combination of low power consumption and high performance has driven strong demand, particularly from AI server applications, and it is widely seen as the next growth driver for the memory chip market after HBM.

Supply prices for LPDDR have recently been rising to levels rivaling those of conventional DRAM, which has itself been surging. The cause is a supply bottleneck created as memory chip manufacturers concentrate capacity on commodity DRAM and HBM production.

As the customer base broadens and contract prices continue to climb, memory chip makers posted record-high sales in the first quarter, driven in part by LPDDR. Market research firm TrendForce said mobile DRAM sales rose 64.5 percent in the first quarter of this year and forecast that "mobile DRAM sales will continue to grow in the second quarter, supported by sustained increases in contract prices."

SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics in particular are seen as having secured an early lead by moving ahead of Micron in preparing for LPDDR6 mass production. Samsung Electronics also announced LPDDR6 applying its industry-first 10-nanometer fifth-generation (1b) DRAM technology in January and won an innovation award at CES, the world's largest consumer electronics and IT exhibition.

SK Hynix's LPDDR6 mass production is also expected to kick off a full-scale race to capture the SOCAMM market. SOCAMM bundles LPDDR into a module form for AI servers and has emerged rapidly as a next-generation AI server memory as the AI market shifts from training to inference workloads.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited the SK Hynix booth at Computex 2026, Asia's largest IT exhibition, in June and left the inscription "LOVE SOCAMM" on a 192GB SOCAMM module.

Nvidia recently unveiled its first in-house CPU for AI servers, called "Vera." If HBM is the natural partner of the GPU, LPDDR is the counterpart of the CPU. As the AI market grows more sophisticated and CPU demand rises sharply, demand for SOCAMM is expected to strengthen further.


go@heraldcorp.com