China-based memory manufacturer Tongfu Microelectronics announced that it has started the trial process in HBM2 (High Bandwidth Memory) production. This important development is seen as a turning point in China’s goal of reducing foreign dependency in the semiconductor industry. According to Nikkei, Tongfu’s HBM2 memories can be used in Huawei’s artificial intelligence GPUs in the future.

China starts production of HBM2

HBM2 is a critical technology used in high-performance artificial intelligence applications and data processing processes. Tongfu’s start of trial production in this field is considered as a major step taken by China to increase its competitiveness in domestic memory production. Although HBM production is a new business for the company, Tongfu holds an important place in the industry as the third largest semiconductor packaging and testing service provider worldwide. By the way, let us also point out that AMD is a partner and shareholder of Tongfu.

Besides Tongfu, other Chinese companies such as CXMT and Wuhan Xinxin are also making significant progress in DRAM and HBM memory technologies. Although HBM2 is a few generations behind by global standards, these memories can still make significant contributions to China in terms of performance.

Interestingly, Tongfu is said to be the supplier of Huawei’s AI solutions, but it is unclear whether HBM memories have been officially integrated. Although HBM2 memory is valuable for China, the West is already using HBM 3 and HBM3E memory and will soon switch to HBM4 memory with Nvidia Rubin.