SK Hynix HBM2 costs over double as much as HBM, still no volume production

SK Hynix presented its Q2 2017 financial results on July 25. The company's comments about HBM2 slipped under the radar but were picked up this weekend by AnandTech.

The memory maker revealed it's working with a number of partners to bring their GDDR6 and HBM2 memory solutions to the market. One of the big statements here is that the SK Hynix HBM2 hasn't entered mass production yet. The company didn't mention a specific date other than its expectation of volume production starting sometime in the second half of 2017.

Compared with the aging GDDR5 technology, both GDDR6 and HBM2 will be more expensive. SK Hynix didn't share specifics about HBM2 pricing but revealed that customers are willing to pay 2.5 times the price of first-generation HBM. There's not a lot of information here so the comparison base is a bit ambiguous.

Analyst Nicolas Gaudois
That's great clarification. I've got a question on products. I think earlier in Q2 you published your specs for DRAM for new products, and you have now announced GDDR6 and high bandwidth memory to HBM2 availability, I think, for later this year, I suspect, on 21 nanometer. Could you maybe clarify at what pace you think you would make these products available and if, in your opinion, initially they will justify a premium and what kind of premium versus GDDR5 and current high bandwidth memory products as well?

Unidentified SK Hynix Company Representative
Yes, for both the GDDR6 and HBM2 for 21 nano, we are currently developing them with the target of completing the development by the end of this year. Especially for HBM, we are currently collaborating with a number of partners, and we expect volume production to begin in the second half of this year. And compared to the GDDR5, it is clear that both products would have price premium over it. And although I cannot specify the exact pricing that we expect, I can tell you that the customers are willing to pay at least double or, let's say, 2.5 times of the HBM.

This update from SK Hynix means that Samsung is still the only company that's mass producing HBM2. I guess this partly explains why AMD's Radeon RX Vega is so late.