Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong was confirmed to have attended the Sun Valley Conference in the United States with Han Jin-man, head of Samsung Electronics' foundry business (president). The head of Samsung's foundry accompanied him to a closed-door networking stage that draws a large gathering of global big tech chief executive officers (CEOs).
On the 8th, according to ChosunBiz reporting, Lee left the country with Han to attend the "Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference," held recently in Sun Valley, Idaho.
The Sun Valley Conference is a private event hosted annually by U.S. investment bank Allen & Company. It brings together heavyweights in global information technology (IT), media, and finance and is known as the "summer camp for billionaires." This year's event is also known to draw key big tech figures such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon board chair Jeff Bezos.
Han became head of Samsung Electronics' foundry business late last year and is tasked with rebuilding Samsung's foundry operations. Observers say this is a strategic move for Samsung to go beyond remaining a memory supplier in the artificial intelligence (AI) chip market and to enter as a production partner for big tech's in-house AI chips.
As the AI server market surges, big tech companies are expanding development of their own AI accelerators and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to reduce reliance on Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs). Google, Amazon, and Meta are already increasing development of in-house AI chips and investment in data centers. In this process, securing high bandwidth memory (HBM), foundry capacity, and advanced packaging in a stable manner has emerged as a core task.
Samsung Electronics is a global integrated semiconductor corporations with both memory and foundry. It can offer not only memory products such as HBM, DRAM, and NAND flash, but also AI chip contract manufacturing and advanced packaging as a bundle. Taiwan's TSMC, the world's No. 1 foundry, has strong competitiveness in advanced processes, but it does not provide memory supply together.
Han is regarded as a semiconductor sales and strategy expert who has worked in DRAM and flash design, solid-state drive (SSD) development, product planning, marketing, and as head of strategic marketing. Since 2022, Han has served as head of DSA, overseeing Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business in the Americas, expanding touchpoints with local U.S. customers. Han was then appointed president and head of the DS Division's foundry business late last year.
In the semiconductor industry, this Sun Valley move is seen as having the character of a "two-top sales" effort by Lee and Han. Lee builds trust with big tech's top executives, while Han makes concrete the possibilities for cooperation in foundry and packaging. Although the Sun Valley Conference is not a venue for signing official contracts, it can open the door to long-term partnerships with big tech leaders.
Samsung's foundry is in urgent need of a rebound. While Samsung Electronics is raising expectations for improved results on the back of a memory market recovery and expanding AI demand, the foundry business still faces the task of narrowing the gap with TSMC.
A semiconductor industry official said, "Lee meeting with big tech leaders in Sun Valley in itself can be seen as a global networking move, but the fact that the head of the foundry business moved together is different in meaning," and added, "It reads as a message that Samsung intends not to remain a memory supplier in the AI Semiconductor market, but to enter as a production partner in big tech's in-house chip ecosystems."