Samsung Shares Rise to Year’s High on Nvidia Approval Report

(Bloomberg) — Samsung Electronics Co. shares jumped more than 5% after reports it’s won approval from Nvidia Corp. for the use of advanced memory chips, which marks a breakthrough for the Korean technology leader.

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The stock climbed at its peak to the highest since August 2024. Mondays’ gain comes after local media including the Korea Economic Daily reported that Samsung’s 12-layer HBM3E product recently passed Nvidia’s qualification tests. That clears the components for use in the AI accelerators essential to the training of AI models from ChatGPT to DeepSeek, and finally allows Samsung to compete with SK Hynix Inc. with higher-end products.

Samsung has redoubled efforts in 2025 to catch up with SK Hynix and Micron Technology Inc. in the provision for high-bandwidth memory, which is designed to work in tandem with the powerful Nvidia chips that Meta Platforms Inc. and OpenAI employ to train and operate AI services. Company representatives have declined to comment on the reports.

Samsung shares are up roughly 20% this month on expectations also that commodity memory chips — where Samsung still leads — will face supply shortages next year, thanks to demand from artificial intelligence. Global funds bought more than $2 billion worth of Samsung in September.

While reports of Samsung passing Nvidia’s tests have cropped up sporadically this year, investors are putting more stock in such talk — 19 months after the development of the product and after several delays. Citigroup analyst Peter Lee anticipates an official result to be released in late September or early October.

The company has also made strides into other areas of the chip market. In July, a surprise $16.5 billion chipmaking deal with Tesla Inc. breathed new life into a foundry or contract-manufacturing business all but written off by many investors.

Samsung’s shipment volumes to Nvidia should remain small this year as Nvidia’s orders have already been filled by rivals SK Hynix and Micron. Yet that still marks a big step for Samsung, whose HBM delays have raised questions around its technology leadership. While investors have generally low expectations after those hiccups, Nvidia’s approval would still be a positive for Samsung, Goldman Sachs analysts wrote.

If confirmed, “it would be a clear indication that the company is able to meet the highest standard in the HBM industry,” Goldman Sachs analyst Giuni Lee said in a report. It “therefore could also mean that the probability for HBM4 qualification from the same customer could rise.”