Samsung Elec and AMD Sign MoU on AI Memory, Explore Foundry Partnership

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo
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Samsung Elec and AMD Sign MoU on AI Memory, Explore Foundry Partnership

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo

Samsung Electronics and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) signed a memorandum of understanding to expand their strategic partnership on memory chip supplies for artificial intelligence infrastructure, the companies said on Wednesday.

The agreement will focus on supplying Samsung's next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) for AMD's upcoming Instinct MI455X AI accelerators, as well as optimized DDR5 memory for AMD's sixth-generation EPYC processors, they said in a statement.

The companies will also discuss opportunities for a foundry partnership, under which Samsung could provide contract chip manufacturing services ⁠for next-generation AMD ⁠products.

Under the agreement, Samsung will position itself as a key HBM4 supplier for AMD's next-generation AI GPUs, Reuters reported. The South Korean firm has already been a primary HBM supplier for AMD, supplying HBM3E chips used in AMD's MI350X and MI355X accelerators.

The ⁠agreement comes during the week of Nvidia's annual developer conference GTC, where CEO Jensen Huang on Monday announced a foundry partnership with the Korean firm and praised its HBM4 chips.

The tie-up highlights a broader race among global chipmakers to lock in long-term supply partnerships for advanced memory, as AI-driven demand reshapes the semiconductor industry and tightens supply of HBM chips.

Last month, AMD said it had agreed ⁠to sell ⁠up to $60 billion worth of AI chips to Meta Platforms over five years, a deal that allows the Facebook owner to purchase as much as 10% of the chips. AMD signed a similar deal with OpenAI last year.

Samsung, the world's largest memory chipmaker, has been seeking to narrow the gap with rivals in the fast-growing HBM segment. It holds about a 22% share of the global HBM market, compared with market leader SK Hynix's 57%, according to Counterpoint.