Key points
- Lisa Su visited Seoul for talks with Korean chip suppliers
- She said AMD will invest tens of billions across its supply chain
- AMD is still exploring foundry work with Samsung
AMD (AMD) will invest tens of billions of dollars across its global supply chain, CEO Lisa Su told reporters in Seoul on Oct. 7, Asia Economy reported. She also said AMD is still exploring a foundry partnership with Samsung Electronics (SSNLF), in which Samsung would manufacture chips that AMD designs.
Su gave the investment figure when she was asked how AMD's spending in Korea compares with Taiwan. She didn't give a number for Korea. She said AMD's business in Korea is already large because of memory, and that AMD is building up cooperation in wafers, packaging, memory, and system components.
Samsung and SK Hynix supply memory for AMD's AI chips
Su said AMD has started shipping its MI455 accelerators and Helios rack systems, and both use HBM4, the newest generation of high-bandwidth memory. She credited support from both Samsung and SK Hynix (SKHY).
She met SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung on Oct. 7 and was scheduled to meet Samsung chip chief Jun Young-hyun later that day. Su said AMD wants supply agreements lasting more than five years, rather than planning only one to three years ahead.
The Seoul stop followed a visit to Taiwan on Oct. 6, where Su said AMD plans to substantially increase its chip supply in 2027.
A Samsung foundry deal is still under discussion
Samsung and AMD signed a memorandum of understanding in March under which the companies agreed to align on primary HBM4 supply for AMD's MI455X GPU and advanced DRAM for its next EPYC server processors, code-named Venice. The two companies said they would also discuss a foundry partnership, through which Samsung would make next-generation AMD products.
Nearly seven months later, that part is still open. Su said AMD continues to look at opportunities with Samsung in foundry services as well as memory. Here's how the foundry business works and why TSMC dominates it.
Su also said AMD will set up an "AI Center of Excellence" in Korea and expand its work with startups and universities there. She named Upstage, MangoBoost, and Moreh as startups AMD already works with.
AMD shares were at $637.00 in premarket trading at 8:38 a.m. ET on Oct. 7, down about 1.9% from the previous close of $649.42. Memory supply is one reason chip prices have climbed this year, as we explained in September.
