SEOUL โ China's drive to develop its own artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors is being constrained by a bottleneck in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), according to a claim examined in a recent fact-check, which found that the constraint highlights the supplier leverage held by Korean memory makers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. The review drew on 12 primary sources and was based on the claim that the HBM supply crunch facing Chinese AI chip developers has brought the two Korean suppliers' advantageous position into sharp relief.
The claim at the center of the review concerns HBM, the stacked high-speed memory that sits alongside processors such as the graphics processing unit (GPU) in systems used to train and run large language models (LLMs). According to the verified claim, Chinese efforts to build competitive AI semiconductors are running into an "HBM bottleneck," with access to the memory emerging as a limiting factor for the country's AI semiconductor industry.
Because HBM is a critical input for AI accelerators, constraints on its supply translate directly into constraints on chip development, the claim asserts, framing the memory bottleneck as a structural weak point in China's AI semiconductor push.
The second half of the claim addresses who benefits from that bottleneck. It states that the situation has highlighted the supplier-side advantage of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, positioning the two Korean companies as the parties holding leverage in the HBM market. In other words, the same supply constraint that hampers Chinese AI chip developers underscores the strategic weight carried by the Korean suppliers of the memory.
The fact-check treated this supplier-advantage framing as an integral part of the claim, examining it alongside the bottleneck assertion rather than in isolation.
Fact-checkers reviewed 12 primary sources in assessing the claim, which originated from coverage of China's AI semiconductor industry and the HBM bottleneck it faces. The review process weighed the bottleneck characterization and the depiction of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix as suppliers in an advantageous position against the sourced record.
On the strength of that review, the claim that China's AI semiconductor industry faces an HBM bottleneck, one that highlights the supplier leverage of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, was rated Mostly True.