AMD CEO Lisa Su South Korea Visit Secures Samsung HBM4 AI Accelerator Supply
AMD CEO Lisa Su is scheduled to visit South Korea on the 18th, marking her first official trip to the country since assuming leadership in 2014. This rare visit signals a major shift in AMD's supply chain strategy as the company seeks to secure critical components for its next-generation AI accelerators. Su is expected to meet with Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon and Samsung Electronics' top brass, including Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Vice Chairman Jeon Young-hyun.
The primary focus of the visit involves securing a stable supply of memory from Samsung. The company AMD faces supply limitations for both general purpose DRAM and NAND flash but the main issue centers around acquiring 6th Generation High Bandwidth Memory HBM4.
The upcoming AMD AI accelerator MI450 series will use Samsung HBM4 technology to challenge Nvidia which holds a dominant position in the market. The discussions will address long term agreements which protect AMD from memory shortages occurring worldwide.
Su has historically focused on building partnerships with Taiwan (TSMC) and Japan but HBM4 has become an essential strategic relationship for 2026. The Samsung Foundry serves as TSMC's potential competitor. The semiconductor industry is currently monitoring developments about a possible partnership which would allow companies to produce chips. Samsung would make its first high volume production of cutting edge chips for AMD if the contract between the two companies gets signed. The two companies worked together in 2016 to create 14nm graphics chips but their current agreement establishes a much larger partnership.
Samsung would gain credibility with Big Tech by using AMD business to demonstrate its advanced process capabilities.
AMD decreases its dependence on TSMC by selecting new foundry partners which enables the company to establish a more reliable manufacturing process for its top tier AI products.
Lisa Su currently works on establishing a partnership with Naver for AI infrastructure projects while she also channels her efforts into discussing deals with Samsung. She is trying to organize meetings with government officials to negotiate AI partnerships between governments similar to the high level meetings which tech executives like Masayoshi Son have.
The summary of key discussion points consists of three distinct parts which include Samsung Memory supply details Samsung Foundry manufacturing capabilities for AMD products and Naver development of AI services with existing infrastructure. The first visit to Korea after 12 years shows how the country has grown into a major power in the competition for artificial intelligence hardware. The outcome of these meetings will be announced by both Samsung and AMD because this partnership holds major importance for semiconductor industry operations in 2026.
