Memory is no longer a commodity
At least not completely
And this trend is only accelerating
Ten years from now, memory won't be considered any more of a commodity than what $TSM or $INTC sell
HBM today is the early-stage part of this trend, with China as proof
CXMT is only achieving a 25% yield on HBM3, versus 90%+ for SK Hynix
They're struggling to translate their DRAM manufacturing know-how into HBM because of its much higher complexity
That's even considering that CXMT uses 3,000 TSVs per HBM3 stack, compared with 8,000+ for SK Hynix, which simplifies manufacturing but can limit bandwidth
Mass production has already been delayed, with current shipments still at sample scale to companies including T-Head and Cambricon
The more complex memory becomes, the less it makes sense to call it a commodity. With innovations coming in custom HBM, zNAND-O, HPB, iHBM, HBF, and more, this trend is only accelerating