Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), made her first visit to Korea since 2014, signaling AMD’s strong commitment to strengthen ties with Korean tech companies. This move comes as AMD fiercely competes with Nvidia in the booming global artificial intelligence (AI) chip market.
Samsung Electronics announced Wednesday that its Executive Chairman, Lee Jae-yong, hosted Su for a banquet at the company’s guest house in Seoul. This high-level meeting underscores the importance of the partnership.
Before her meeting with Lee, Su toured Samsung’s semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. There, AMD and Samsung signed an agreement to expand their strategic collaboration on next-generation AI memory and computing technologies.
Under this new agreement, AMD has chosen Samsung as its main supplier for HBM4 high-bandwidth memory chips. These chips will power AMD’s upcoming Instinct MI455X graphics processing units (GPUs). Samsung will also provide advanced dynamic random access memory solutions for AMD’s sixth-generation EPYC central processing units (CPUs), code-named “Venice.”
The two tech giants also plan to discuss a foundry partnership. This means Samsung could potentially manufacture next-generation AMD products, further deepening their collaboration. Samsung has a long history of working with AMD, supplying HBM3E for AMD’s MI350X and MI355 GPUs in the past.
Jun Young-hyun, head of Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions Division, expressed confidence in Samsung’s ability to support AMD’s AI roadmap, highlighting their “unrivaled turnkey capabilities” in advanced memory, foundry, and packaging. Su also shared her excitement, emphasizing that integrating the entire computing stack, from silicon to system, is crucial for accelerating AI innovation.
Su’s busy schedule also included a meeting with Roh Tae-moon, head of Samsung Electronics’ Device Experience Division, which oversees mobile, TV, and home appliance businesses.
Earlier in her visit, Su stopped at Naver’s headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. The goal was to speed up the development of independent AI infrastructure in Korea. Naver will expand its use of AMD processors for large-scale AI training and cloud services, and AMD will provide Naver with access to its next-generation GPUs. The companies also plan to work together on research and development for new AI services.
AMD’s CEO is also set to meet with Upstage CEO Sung Kim and Ha Jung-woo, senior presidential secretary for AI and future planning, further demonstrating AMD’s commitment to the Korean AI ecosystem.
