Samsung Foundry has seemingly secured orders from major companies including AMD & Tesla, as per a report from Korean outlet, Fnnews.
Samsung Foundry Might Challenge TSMC & Other Giants If Reports Regarding Its 4nm Orders Are True
In a forum for investors in Hong Kong, Samsung discloses that its foundry division is on track to position itself to be a strong competitor in the semiconductor industry. While the company has shown complete devotion to its mobile division, the officials have hinted that the company plans to diversify its sales structure by increasing the number of customers in fields such as semiconductors for AI and automobiles.
Hyperscalers (large-scale data center operators), automobile OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), and Tesla, as well as other customers, came to us wanting chips of their design. When asked why they came to us, we said, “It’s because Samsung has all three.
Our mission is to help semiconductors, including foundries and memory, bring imagination to life. Some of our customers are planning to sell the 4-nanometer AI accelerator we are developing, and the electric vehicle company, the number one in the automobile industry, is also moving to 5-nanometer. We are developing a version of a fully autonomous chiplet.
-Samsung’s President Jeong Hai-Lin
The above statement reveals that Samsung has garnered interest in its 4nm process, especially for the AI segment. It was reported that Samsung has passed decisive quality tests for its next-gen HBM3 memory and has positioned itself to bring AMD on board.
Now it is not known definitively if Samsung will end up being a partner in the development of the MI300 accelerators but AMD had previously made it very clear that their accelerator is something that couldn’t have been made possible without the help of TSMC. So it is likely that we are looking at certain IPs made at Samsung while the chip largely remains a TSMC design. Or AMD could just dual-source based on supply and demand.
Samsung is also in the process of creating its own advanced chip manufacturing ecosystem known as “SAINT” which should rival TSMC’s CoWoS. More on that here.
Apart from the orders from the AI segment, Samsung has also revealed that they have received orders from Tesla as well, and the company hasn’t specified what type of process they have sold to the company, but they have mentioned a “5-nanometer” process, suggesting that it might be used in Tesla’s next-gen HW 5.0 chips, designed for Full-Self Driving applications. As of this year, the proportion of Samsung Electronics’ total sales is estimated to be in this order: mobile (54%), HPC (19%), and automotive (11%).
If we look at a decade ago, a majority of Samsung Electronics’ reveal came from the mobile and consumer electronics segment, due to which the company was confined to the mentioned markets only. However, with rapid advancements in division, followed by gaining the trust of clients in the industry, the Korean giant has diversified its revenue streams, especially with the advent of the “generative AI’ hype.
News Source: FNNews