Samsung Aims to Become Primary Chipmaker for AMD

Samsung Electronics is seeking to take its partnership with AMD to a new level. They expect to bring AMD into the fold of major clients for its foundry division, Samsung Foundry.

Negotiations to expand cooperation took place during a visit by AMD CEO Lisa Su to Samsung's headquarters. This serves as a follow-up to a three-year memorandum of understanding signed earlier in the spring. 

The agreement covers the supply of HBM4 and DDR5 memory, joint development for the AI field, exploring opportunities to manufacture AMD chips at Samsung's facilities, and optimizing advanced packaging solutions.

Samsung Foundry's Ambitions

Expanding its contract chipmaking business is a strategic objective for Samsung: securing a client as formidable as AMD would significantly bolster Samsung Foundry's standing.

"We are going to discuss our broader partnership. We have many partners at Samsung," Lisa Su noted while speaking to journalists.

Bilateral cooperation offers mutual benefits: Samsung gets the chance to load its advanced fabrication lines and secure large long-term contracts, while AMD gains an opportunity to diversify its supply chain and reduce reliance on a single manufacturing partner amid colossal demand for AI accelerators.

Risks of Switching Manufacturers

Despite mutual interest, transferring the production of complex processors and AI accelerators to new process nodes remains a challenging task. Modern chips are designed around specific design rules and fab capabilities, meaning a contractor change requires extensive design rework.

In its annual report, AMD explicitly highlights the risks associated with selecting new manufacturing partners: it can lead to product time-to-market delays, reduced wafer yield, or degraded performance. Currently, AMD utilizes Samsung Foundry facilities solely for producing select programmable logic devices (FPGAs), with no immediate plans to migrate its most advanced flagship solutions.

HBM4 for Instinct Series Accelerators

For now, the most active collaboration between the two companies centers on memory technologies. Samsung serves as the primary HBM4 supplier for AMD's upcoming Instinct MI400 accelerators. 

"Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are key partners for AMD in the supply chain. Demand for AI solutions is extraordinarily high, which is why we plan our long-term strategy together with partners three to five years in advance," Lisa Su concluded.