Samsung Unveils Next Generation AI Memory Technology to Power Future AI Infrastructure
Samsung Electronics has unveiled its most ambitious AI memory roadmap to date at the Future of Memory and Storage (FMS) 2026 conference in Santa Clara, California.
The company introduced the industry's first concept models of zHBM and zNAND-O, alongside the groundbreaking V10 BV-NAND with more than 400 layers according to Samsung's official announcement.
With approximately 30 memory and storage technologies on display in an AI cloud server-inspired booth, the company outlined a comprehensive strategy to address the surging bandwidth and power demands of high-performance computing and AI infrastructure as detailed by StorageReview.
The centerpiece of the unveiling is zHBM, a revolutionary architecture that vertically stacks high-bandwidth memory directly above AI accelerators, moving beyond conventional designs where HBM sits alongside the processor as reported by Yonhap News Agency.
By dramatically shortening the distance data must travel, zHBM aims to deliver approximately eight times the performance of HBM5 while achieving more than ten times the memory density, tripling energy efficiency, and cutting thermal resistance by more than half.
The architecture also supports customer-specific designs, allowing customized IP to be integrated into the interlayer between memory and the AI accelerator according to Reuters.
"With broad expertise spanning DRAM, NAND, enterprise storage and relevant advanced semiconductor technologies, Samsung presented its latest AI memory portfolio and technology roadmap, including a preview of its zHBM and zNAND-O concept models, the industry-first introduction of its V10 BV-NAND with 400-plus layers and a comprehensive range of solutions designed to advance future AI infrastructure." – Samsung Electronics, FMS 2026 announcement
Complementing zHBM, Samsung introduced zNAND-O, a next-generation NAND solution built on V-NAND technology and available in four- and eight-layer versions. Designed for edge AI environments, zNAND-O optimizes space efficiency, I/O performance, and low latency to support real-time data-intensive applications. The company also unveiled V10 BV-NAND, marking 13 years since the debut of its first V-NAND.
The new architecture, enabled by wafer bonding technology, increases memory density by approximately 58% compared to the previous V9 generation while improving read, write, and I/O performance as covered by FoneArena.
The broader AI memory roadmap includes HBM4E samples already in customer shipments, a preview of HBM5, LPDDR5X-PIM for processing-in-memory, and enterprise SSD platforms including the PM1763 and BM1773.
As AI workloads expand from training large language models to inference and real-time edge processing, Samsung is positioning itself as an end-to-end AI memory supplier capable of delivering integrated solutions across the entire data pipeline.
