Samsung Electronics announced on Thursday, that it had started mass production of next-generation memory chips to power artificial intelligence, touting an “industry-leading” breakthrough.

The high-bandwidth HBM4 chips are seen as a key component needed to scale-up the vast data centres powering the explosion in artificial intelligence.

US tech giant Nvidia, which is the world’s most valuable company, is widely expected to be one of Samsung’s main buyers.

Samsung said it had “begun mass production of its industry-leading HBM4 and has shipped commercial products to customers”.

A global frenzy to build AI data centres has sent orders for advanced, high‑bandwidth memory microchips soaring.

Samsung said its new chip was significantly faster than older models, exceeding industry standards for processing speed by more than 40 per cent.

This would satisfy “escalating demands for higher performance”, the company said.

Recall that Samsung Electronics stock was up more than six per cent in afternoon trade on South Korea’s stock exchange.