Samsung Electronics to secure big tech customers with 4-nm technology in U.S.

Samsung Electronics Co. headquarters in Seoul. [Photo by Park Hyung-ki]

Samsung Electronics Co. is accelerating efforts to secure local clients as it speeds up the operations of its production line in the U.S. by securing subsidies.

The South Korean company is pursuing a strategy to secure big tech companies in North America as its customers by leveraging its cutting-edge 4-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process, which has become a cornerstone in semiconductor foundry.

According to multiple industry sources on Tuesday, Samsung Electronics has been eager to broaden its customer base, a crucial step in ensuring the smooth operations of its Taylor factory that is scheduled to be in operation at the end of 2024.

Samsung Electronics will likely partner with Nvidia Corp., the world’s leading manufacturer of chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Wccftech, a well-established technology magazine, found that Nvidia has recently adopted a new approach to diversification of supply networks while expanding potential shipments of AI-specific chips for the next year.

Among other foundry suppliers, Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) boast exclusive capability to manufacture ultra-high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) designed for AI applications, such as Nvidia’s H100.

Given that TSMC has seen its production capacity fully booked, the only option available for Nvidia may be Samsung Electronics.

Samsung Electronics is likely to be a foundry partner of Qualcomm Inc., a manufacturer of the fourth-generation application processor (AP) Snapdragon 8. The two companies boast a longstanding partnership.

In 2022, Qualcomm opted for foundry manufacturing, choosing Samsung Electronics’ 4-nm processing for the production of its first-generation Snapdragon 8 chips, which subsequently found its way into the Samsung Galaxy S22.

However, Qualcomm encountered challenges with the initial iteration of Snapdragon 8, including issues related to yield and overheating. As a result, the second-generation Snapdragon 8, which powered the Galaxy S20, was exclusively manufactured by TSMC.

Groq, a U.S-based fabless, has recently signed a partnership with Samsung Electronics to produce its next-generation AI-specific chips. Groq was founded in 2016 by former Google engineers.