Samsung Electronics has made a significant move within its management committee to invest in Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Although the specific details of the investment have not yet been disclosed, it is striking that it differs from typical agenda topics that typically dominate discussions such as storage semiconductors and contract manufacturing services.
According to Samsung Electronics' corporate governance report, the management committee approved the "GPU investment proposal" in March of this year. The committee is composed of Han Jong hee, the head of Samsung's Device Experience (DX) department, as well as executives from the Mobile Experience (MX) and Storage business departments. This is the third meeting of this year and the first GPU investment decision made since the agenda item was announced in 2012, sparking speculation that Samsung is preparing to enhance its competitiveness in GPU related business areas.
GPUs are mainly used for artificial intelligence (AI) computing, and high bandwidth storage (HBM) products produced by companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are an indispensable part of them. Samsung System's LSI business unit is also collaborating with AMD to develop GPUs for smartphone application processors, which has a bright future for contract manufacturing business units that manufacture actual semiconductors based on these designs.
However, some interpret this investment as Samsung's internal strategy of utilizing GPUs to enhance semiconductor process innovation, rather than developing and manufacturing GPUs. In March of this year, Samsung announced at NVIDIA GTC 2024 that it plans to continue collaborating with NVIDIA to develop AI based digital twin systems for fully automated semiconductor factories by 2030.
Samsung is currently preparing to fully utilize its newly built High Performance Computing (HPC) center in the Huacheng Park in South Korea. The center started construction in November 2021 and was completed in April of this year. Despite the increasing complexity and miniaturization of semiconductor processes, Samsung's DS (Device Solutions) division has been building dedicated IT infrastructure in major manufacturing locations both domestically and internationally, aiming to improve data utilization.
The Samsung Huacheng HPC Center has large servers and network equipment required for semiconductor design, and its significant investment in GPUs indicates the increasing importance of AI computing in Samsung's strategy.
