Samsung Electro-Mechanics (009150.KS) is buying 24.5 billion won ($17.7 million) worth of equipment used to make artificial intelligence chip substrates from Hanmi Semiconductor (042700.KQ). The deal is unusual because Samsung and Hanmi Semiconductor once clashed in a patent suit. Analysts say Samsung chose practical gains over past friction, turning to a supplier capable of delivering large volumes of the equipment it needs to meet surging demand for AI substrates from Big Tech firms.
Hanmi Semiconductor said in a regulatory filing on the 6th that it had signed a contract to supply Samsung Electro-Mechanics with 24.48 billion won worth of micro saw and vision placement (MSVP) systems. The MSVP combines a micro saw that cuts semiconductor packages with high precision and a vision placement unit that washes, dries, inspects, sorts and stacks them, making it essential back-end equipment. It is used for DRAM and NAND chips as well as for AI chip substrates, including the flip-chip ball grid array (FC-BGA) products that are Samsung Electro-Mechanics' mainstay.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics plans to deploy most of the MSVP systems at its substrate plants in Sejong and Vietnam, where it recently announced expansion investments. The company also intends to upgrade existing equipment to newer models, allowing it to build out AI chip substrate production lines quickly and expand capacity. On Sept. 28, Samsung Electro-Mechanics disclosed plans to invest a combined 6.78 trillion won in the Sejong and Vietnam plants.
Industry officials describe the transaction as unusual. Hanmi Semiconductor filed a patent suit against Semes, a chip equipment subsidiary of Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), in 2012, alleging infringement of core technology, and won the case. Business between the Samsung group and Hanmi Semiconductor has since been limited to small-scale deals.
But with Big Tech demand for AI chip substrates climbing sharply, cooperation with key equipment suppliers has become unavoidable for Samsung Electro-Mechanics as it races to raise output. "With the Sejong and Vietnam plant investments confirmed last week, securing new equipment became urgent," an industry official said. "After reviewing several suppliers, the company concluded that Hanmi Semiconductor had the edge."
Hanmi Semiconductor is regarded as the market leader in MSVP systems. The company launched its first-generation vision placement product in 1998 and in 2021 became the first in South Korea to localize production of micro saw equipment, which had previously been imported from Japan. Last year, the share of MSVP in Hanmi Semiconductor's revenue grew 1.8-fold from a year earlier.
"Hanmi Semiconductor has steadily supplied the high-precision, high-reliability equipment customers demand, based on in-house core technology for key process equipment and vertically integrated manufacturing capabilities," Chairman Kwak Dong-shin said. "We will put customer satisfaction first and focus our capabilities on delivering the core value customers need."
