Why HBM is the Hottest Thing in Memory

Doug O'Laughlin · 3 Mar 2024

Read the piece on fabricatedknowledge.com ↗

Doug O'Laughlin did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
High-bandwidth memory costs roughly twice the capital per bit that ordinary DRAM does, because its dies are twice the size.

Their wordsHBM has the unique dynamic of costing a lot more than traditional DRAM, and the dynamic 2x higher capex is driven by the twice as large die size for HBM.
Our reading
The rush to build high-bandwidth memory starves ordinary DRAM and NAND of capacity, so AI demand tightens the memory markets it never touches.
Mental modelSecond-order thinking

Their wordsThey will shift what cash they generate to HBM capacity, which will keep supply growth in DRAM and NAND low.

Keep reading

The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.