Is Huang Renxun stepping down a good thing? South Korean semiconductor executive: It may be bullish for us

Huang Renxun announced on the 12th that he would resign as president, CEO and board member of Huida. (European News Agency)

[Financial Channel/Comprehensive Report] Huang Renxun announced his resignation as Huida's president, CEO and board member on the 12th. South Korean industry insiders and analysts said Huang Renxun's sudden resignation may allow South Korean memory chip manufacturers to gain greater bargaining power in future supply negotiations. On the other hand, his departure has also caused the outside world to question the future direction of the artificial intelligence (AI) project he personally promoted.

Korean media "The Korea Herald" reported that for South Korean memory manufacturers, this high-level personnel change may even bring opportunities if Huida gradually falls behind its rivals in market competition. Ahn Ki-hyun, vice president of the South Korea Semiconductor Industry Association, said: "This may actually be more beneficial to us. If another company fills the market gap left by Huida, it will still need our HBM."

Ahn believes that Huida's reliance on a few memory suppliers is more important than Huang Renxun's personal relationship with South Korean business leaders. He said: "If Huida wants to change suppliers, there must be alternatives. But where are these alternatives?"

South Korea's SK hynix and Samsung Electronics, as well as the United States' Micron, are the world's three largest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) manufacturers, and HBM is an indispensable key component of Huida's AI accelerator.

"Instead of concentrating supply on a single customer, we can spread supply to multiple customers. This may actually be more beneficial to us," Ahn said.

The market had expected that memory supply would gradually shift to Huida's competitors. LS Securities estimates that Huida's share of global HBM demand will drop from 66% in 2025 to 57% in 2026. Morgan Stanley predicts that Huida's market share will drop to 37.3% in 2027, and Google will reach 36%.

SemiAnalysis, a research organization that specializes in semiconductor supply chains, said on Friday (13th) that Huang Renxun personally ensured memory production capacity in South Korea and chip manufacturing capacity in Taiwan. “This ability to have tight control over supply is built on personal relationships,” said Dylan Patel, founder and CEO of SemiAnalysis.

SemiAnalysis estimates that when SK Hynix supplies HBM4 to Huida in 2027, it may quote US$3 to US$3.30 per Gb; in comparison, for other major customers, including AMD, Broadcom, Amazon and Google, the quoted price may reach US$3.70 to US$4.10.

Patel believes there is a "tacit understanding" between the two parties. SK Hynix gave Huida priority in obtaining the memory needed for AI chips, while Huida gave priority to supplying GPUs to a wider range of SK Group companies to support its AI infrastructure business. SemiAnalysis predicts that after Huang Renxun leaves, the priority treatment originally enjoyed by Huida may be weakened, thereby freeing up more HBM production capacity for competitors to use.

A South Korean company executive who has business dealings with Huida said that in comparison, he is more worried about the AI ​​factory, physical AI and robot-related projects that Huang Renxun personally promoted. He said: "What worries me more is these new businesses. Huang Jensen has personally promoted some of these projects. The question is whether these projects can be promoted at the same speed without him."

Meritz Securities analyst Hwang Soo-wook warned that if Huida’s financial commitments become more conservative, it may also affect the financing of AI infrastructure. Huida has been helping data center operators raise funds through investment, long-term capacity commitments and revenue guarantees.

Huang Xiuxu said: "If the next management team adopts a more conservative attitude towards new financial support, it may affect the expansion speed and financing conditions of new cloud companies (neocloud)."