Beyond the Wall: Intel and SoftBank’s ZAM Aims to Dethrone HBM by 2030

Intel and SoftBank’s SAIMEMORY announced a partnership to develop Z-Angle Memory (ZAM), a next-generation stacked DRAM aimed at overcoming HBM limits for AI/HPC by improving capacity, power efficiency, and packaging flexibility, building on DOE/NNSA AMT research and Intel’s NGDB work; Intel will focus on fabrication, packaging, and standardization while SAIMEMORY leads design and commercialization, with operations beginning in 2026, prototypes in 2027, and mass production in 2030, positioning the effort against an HBM market led by SK Hynix and Samsung while acknowledging the risk of rapid AI-driven market shifts.