What happened
RAND published a Perspective (PE-A4748-1, 9 July 2026) by Freed, Pilz, Brown, and Heim synthesizing technical and market analysis of the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) ecosystem — the specialized memory used in nearly all leading AI chips. The paper's central finding: HBM is produced at globally competitive scale by only three companies, with manufacturing concentrated in a handful of facilities in East Asia, making it a critical and under-examined chokepoint in the AI compute supply chain. The authors map how HBM works, how it is produced, and who controls production, framing it for researchers and policymakers assessing AI hardware supply-chain vulnerabilities and export-control leverage points.
Why it matters
As export-control policy increasingly targets AI chips, HBM's extreme production concentration represents an under-appreciated single point of leverage (and fragility) in the global AI compute supply chain that national-security and industrial policymakers need to account for.
Action needed
Incorporate HBM supply concentration into AI hardware supply-chain risk assessments and export-control scenario planning.