Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and AMD Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su held a surprise meeting. Samsung Electronics and AMD plan to use the meeting to strengthen cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) chips in the foundry (contract chip manufacturing) sector, including memory semiconductors.
On the 18th, Lee and Su met at the Samsung guesthouse Seungjiwon in Yongsan District, Seoul. At about 5:40 p.m. that day, Jun Young-hyun, head of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor division (DS), along with Samsung Electronics Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Song Jai-hyuk and Foundry Division Head Han Jin-man, entered the guesthouse. At about 5:56 p.m., Lee arrived, followed by Su.
Lee and Su were said to be continuing discussions at the guesthouse to strengthen cooperation in the AI Semiconductor sector. AMD, along with Nvidia, splits the AI chip market and is a major customer for DRAM, NAND flash memory, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supplied by Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, Micron, and others. However, as demand for memory semiconductors surges with the growth of the AI industry, AMD is also suffering from supply shortages, making cooperation with memory semiconductor corporations increasingly important to strengthen its position in the AI chip market.
Samsung Electronics plans to continue talks on securing AMD chip orders not only for memory semiconductors but also in its foundry business. Until now, AMD's AI chips have been produced virtually in full by TSMC, the world's No. 1 foundry corporations. But as concerns grow that chips may not be received on time due to TSMC's limited production capacity, the will to diversify the foundry supply chain is strengthening.
Earlier, Su briefly noted about foundry collaboration with Samsung Electronics, "There is a great deal to discuss."
Samsung Electronics and AMD signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to strengthen cooperation in their semiconductor businesses. Samsung Electronics was selected as the priority supplier of sixth-generation HBM (HBM4) for AMD's next-generation AI chips, and the two sides agreed to continue discussions on a foundry agreement.