Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) has signed a mega-scale strategic partnership worth $200 billion (about 292 trillion won) with Broadcom, a global leader in communications and artificial intelligence (AI) chip design. Analysts say the deal marks a major payoff for Samsung's one-stop turnkey ecosystem in the AI era, one that extends beyond memory supply to cover 2-nanometer (nm, one-billionth of a meter) cutting-edge foundry (contract chip manufacturing) and packaging.
On the 25th, Samsung Electronics said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Broadcom to build next-generation AI infrastructure at the "AI Summit" event held on the 24th at The Midway in San Francisco, U.S.
Key executives attended the event, including Han Jin-man, president and head of Samsung Electronics' foundry business division, and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan. Through the agreement, the two companies agreed to pursue wide-ranging AI semiconductor technology cooperation worth $200 billion over the next five years through 2030.
The most notable aspect is that the deal takes direct aim at the custom AI accelerator (ASIC) market, which global big tech firms are racing to adopt. Based on its cutting-edge memory technology, Samsung Electronics will supply advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) solutions for Broadcom's next-generation AI accelerators.
In particular, Samsung Electronics plans to cooperate with Broadcom on products such as HBM4, which it began mass-producing and shipping in February this year as the world's first to apply 10-nanometer-class sixth-generation (1c) DRAM and 4-nanometer base die technology, and HBM4E, for which it supplied samples first in the industry in May. In effect, Samsung's cutting-edge HBM products, boasting top-tier performance and power efficiency, will serve as the core brains of Broadcom's AI accelerators.
The company also firmly laid a foothold for its rapid pursuit in the global foundry market. Samsung Electronics decided to apply sub-2-nanometer cutting-edge foundry processes to Broadcom's core product lineups, including next-generation high-speed data communication chips.
Rather than stopping at simple contract manufacturing, Samsung will provide advanced packaging technology based on the 2-nanometer process as a full package. The strategy is to link the entire process—from the chip design stage to process optimization, advanced packaging, and mass production—into one, thereby shortening Broadcom's product development period and maximizing chip performance.
This $200 billion partnership is the result of fully leveraging the strengths of Samsung Electronics, an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) that is the only company in the world capable of independently performing memory, logic (foundry), and advanced packaging all together. Jun Young-hyun, vice chairman and head of Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) division, stressed, "In the AI era, a semiconductor solution that tightly integrates memory, logic, and advanced packaging is more important than anything else." He added, "We will expand our cooperation with Broadcom across the board to accelerate the development of future AI infrastructure and provide differentiated value to customers."
Charlie Kawwas, president of Broadcom's Semiconductor Solutions Group, echoed this, saying, "As AI infrastructure rapidly expands, close linkage across the entire semiconductor ecosystem is essential." He added, "Together with Samsung Electronics, which has world-class capabilities, we will create next-generation solutions optimized for increasingly diverse market demands."
