TECH NEWS – AMD is following Nvidia’s lead, but the agreement isn’t that simple. There’s a bit of a twist in the deal for “the reds.”
The artificial intelligence industry, particularly companies involved in the supply chain, has become an increasingly significant player for manufacturers like AMD, as supply constraints have put these companies in a favorable position during negotiations. Yesterday, Lisa Su, AMD’s CEO, visited South Korea to meet with Samsung executives and other partners. According to Samsung’s announcement, AMD secured HBM4 supply for its Instinct MI455X AI accelerators and will work with DDR5 for Venice CPUs. However, the partnership has an interesting caveat.
“Under the MOU, Samsung and AMD will collaborate on the primary HBM4 supply for the next-generation AMD AI accelerator, the AMD Instinct MI455X GPU, as well as advanced DRAM solutions for the sixth-generation AMD EPYC CPUs, codenamed Venice. These technologies will support next-generation AI systems combining AMD Instinct GPUs, AMD EPYC CPUs, and rack-scale architectures, such as the AMD Helios platform,” Samsung said.
The situation has shifted significantly for Samsung in recent months, as its HBM business has gained strong momentum. Following breakthroughs with HBM3 and HBM3E, demand for Samsung’s HBM4 solution has grown, primarily because it offers pin speeds of up to 13 Gbps, among the highest available on the market. Nvidia secured Samsung’s HBM4 capacity for Vera Rubin early on, which gave it an advantage over AMD as well. Samsung was in a stronger position during negotiations with Lisa Su, so the collaboration extends beyond memory.
Samsung retained the right to manufacture certain advanced AMD AI chips at Samsung Foundry, and while the details of the potential collaboration are not yet known, it certainly looks like a smart move. What we do know is that Samsung Foundry has gained significant momentum recently by signing agreements with Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, and other clients, and by adding AMD to its portfolio. That essentially positions the foundry as a reliable player capable of meeting semiconductor demand.
There had already been rumors that Samsung intended to manufacture AMD’s Epyc Venice CPUs using the SF2 process, but the mention of advanced AI chips points more toward accelerators.
Source: WCCFTech, Samsung, Chosun
