Choi Tae-won Forms Nvidia-TSMC Triangular Alliance... Lee Jae-yong Crosses the American Continent for Cooperation

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group Meets with TSMC in Taiwan
Growing Importance of Close Ties Between TSMC and SK Hynix

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on Two-Week US Business Trip
Directly Oversees HBM3E Project with Quality Testing Underway

Choi Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, is interpreted to be strengthening alliances as he meets with Taiwan's TSMC. Earlier in April, Chairman Choi met with Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, and now by meeting with Wei Zhejia, chairman of TSMC, the three-way cooperation in AI semiconductors involving 'design-memory supply-production' is deepening.

Samsung Electronics, which urgently needs to expand its High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) business, is also expected to have its chairman Lee Jae-yong, currently on a business trip in the U.S., directly involved to secure product supply, signaling the intensification of competition among the heads of domestic semiconductor companies.

SK Strengthens Close Ties with TSMC

Chairman Choi visited Taiwan on the 6th after meeting Nvidia in the U.S. last April to meet Chairman Wei Zhejia. Since SK Hynix supplies HBM to Nvidia and TSMC undertakes contract manufacturing of Nvidia AI accelerators including SK Hynix's HBM, the meeting was to concretize business and discuss future strategies. SK Hynix's participation in Computex 2024, Asia's largest IT exhibition held in Taiwan this week, also appears to have been a background factor for this meeting.

In the semiconductor industry, as the close relationship between SK Hynix and TSMC becomes more important, it is evaluated that Chairman Choi personally visited TSMC. Currently, the latest version of HBM is the 5th generation product, HBM3E. The era of HBM4 will open next year. Starting from HBM4, some logic processes are included in the manufacturing process. For SK Hynix, which operates in the memory business, cooperation with the foundry company TSMC is inevitably becoming more important. In this process, the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) related to HBM4 development last April.

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group (left) and Chairman Wei Je-za of TSMC are taking a commemorative photo at the TSMC headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan on the 6th. / Photo by SK Group

Samsung Electronics, which also operates a foundry business, emphasizes its strength in being able to carry out turnkey operations for the entire HBM production process. The industry's background for the expectation that the closeness between SK Hynix, which aims to maintain its lead in the HBM market, and TSMC, which seeks to increase its foundry dominance, will increase further is this alignment of interests.

Chairman Choi also showcased his friendship by posting a photo on his social media in April of his meeting with CEO Jensen Huang in Silicon Valley, USA. The photo drew attention as it included a handwritten message from CEO Huang to Chairman Choi. The message contained Chairman Choi's English name, Tony, and the phrase "For a partnership to create the future of AI and humanity together!" Currently, SK Hynix is supplying Nvidia with HBM3E following HBM3.

Lee Jae-yong May Discuss HBM Business with Nvidia

Samsung Electronics appears to be making an all-out effort to respond to Nvidia's demand to expand HBM suppliers and enhance price competitiveness. They are currently conducting quality tests for the HBM3E 12-stack product, and there is speculation that Chairman Lee, on his business trip to the U.S., may meet CEO Huang to discuss the HBM business directly.

Chairman Lee departed on the 31st of last month right after the Samsung Ho-Am Prize ceremony and is undertaking a business trip covering the East Coast including New York and Washington DC, as well as the West Coast's Silicon Valley. He has completed about one-third of his schedule, during which on the 4th (local time), he met Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon, in New York to discuss cooperation plans related to next-generation communications and Galaxy new product sales.

From the left, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, a Sawasushi official, and Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, posing for a commemorative photo inside Sawasushi in the United States last May /

Chairman Lee plans to carry out about 30 tightly scheduled appointments daily until mid-month. Industry insiders believe that since Chairman Lee has a friendship with CEO Huang, there is a considerable possibility he will meet him again this time. Increasing HBM3E supply to Nvidia this year and boosting related performance has emerged as a key task for Samsung Semiconductor, so it is expected that Chairman Lee will personally oversee this business. Previously, in May last year, Chairman Lee met CEO Huang at a Japanese restaurant in Silicon Valley during a U.S. business trip.

A semiconductor industry official said, "Since HBM performance directly connects to memory performance, both Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have no choice but to focus on the HBM business, and even the chairmen have to get involved. HBM demand is expected to continue increasing next year, so the competition may intensify further."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.