SanDisk CEO: HBF memory chip tapes out in fiscal Q1, samples planned next year

The tape-out matters less as a milestone than as a signal that NAND is being positioned to share the memory tier closest to processors, a space HBM has held alone. That puts SanDisk in a longer-horizon conversation with the HBM supply chain rather than a direct competitor, and the multi-node BiCS roadmap suggests capacity scaling is the real constraint. Whether sampling stays on the stated timeline, and how HBF is received by accelerator designers weighing it against HBM, is the open question worth watching.