Su held talks with Young Hyun Jun, Samsung’s vice chairman and chief executive of its Device Solutions division, during a visit to South Korea that also included discussions with SK Hynix chief executive Kwak Noh-jung. The meetings placed high-bandwidth memory, broader DRAM supplies and possible foundry co-operation at the centre of AMD’s efforts to secure capacity for its expanding AI business.
Speaking to reporters in Seoul, Su said AMD continued to explore opportunities with Samsung across both memory and contract chip manufacturing. She described Samsung and SK Hynix as critical partners for AMD’s data-centre ambitions and urged memory producers to add capacity as quickly as possible.
The talks come as shortages across parts of the memory market complicate expansion plans for chip designers and data-centre operators. Demand for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, has surged because AI accelerators require substantially greater memory bandwidth than conventional computing processors, while strong demand has also tightened supplies of standard DRAM products.
Su said the supply environment remained tight and AMD was working with customers to optimise their memory requirements so available capacity could support more computing. She said the company had built a strong supply chain but was working with suppliers to accelerate its expansion.
AMD expects demand for AI computing to remain elevated for several years and plans to increase chip supply substantially in 2027. Su said during a stop in Taiwan this week that the company had extended its capacity-planning horizon from one or two years to between three and five years as it works with manufacturing partners.
That planning encompasses advanced wafers, packaging, substrates and memory, all of which have become potential constraints as companies race to build AI infrastructure. AMD has been expanding its Instinct accelerator business as it competes with Nvidia for spending by cloud providers and other large data-centre customers.
Samsung already occupies an important position in AMD’s supply plans. The companies signed a memorandum of understanding in March covering next-generation AI memory and computing technologies, with Samsung designated a primary HBM4 supplier for AMD’s Instinct MI455X graphics processor.
Their agreement also covers advanced DRAM products for AMD’s sixth-generation EPYC processors, code-named Venice, and its Helios rack-scale AI platform. Samsung has supplied HBM3E memory for AMD’s MI350X and MI355X accelerators, extending a technology relationship between the companies that spans graphics, mobile and computing products.
HBM4 is particularly important to the next generation of AI hardware because increasingly powerful accelerators need faster transfers of enormous datasets while controlling energy consumption. Memory manufacturers have consequently directed more investment towards HBM, leaving capacity across other memory categories under pressure.
Samsung has been seeking to increase its position in the high-margin HBM market while SK Hynix remains another major supplier to AI chip developers. Strong AI demand has supported memory prices and earnings, though the pace of conventional DRAM price increases is expected to moderate after steep gains earlier this year.
AMD’s discussions with Samsung could also extend beyond memory. Their March agreement provided for talks on a possible foundry partnership under which Samsung could manufacture future AMD products. Su said on Wednesday that AMD was continuing to examine opportunities in that area, without announcing a manufacturing contract.
The possibility would give AMD another potential production option as advanced semiconductor capacity remains heavily sought after. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co remains a central manufacturing partner for AMD, and Su met suppliers in Taiwan before travelling to South Korea as part of her capacity discussions.
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