Samsung co-CEO visits Taiwan in 'low-key manner' to promote HBM, meets with TSMC

Samsung Electronics co-CEO Qing Guixian reportedly visited Taiwan recently in a "low-key manner," according to a new report from UDN.

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It was reported that his first priority was to promise Samsung's HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), which is used in AI GPUs; the faster and more, the better. Samsung has been focusing on pushing high-end DRAM technologies, including HBM (HBM3, HBM3E, and next-gen HBM4) and DDR5, where it needs help from Taiwanese ODM manufacturers, expanding outsourcing of mature and niche products.

Samsung met with both TSMC and Quanta Group subsidiary Werder, reports UDN. According to the sources, the Samsung co-CEO had 'two major tasks during this trip': promoting Samsung's HBM and possible AI cooperation with Taiwanese manufacturers.

UDN reports that the "outside world is optimistic that Samsung has invested in the development of AI server hardware in order to develop generative AI tools. In terms of AI cooperation, it is expected to have further order cooperation with Werder. Werder will welcome new order business opportunities for Samsung's AI servers".

Qing Guixian is the boss of Samsung's semiconductor business, and he's the lead in device solutions (DS) department, including the semiconductor business, and acts as the director of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT). He's a busy man, so it makes sense to notice why he's an important figure when he's visiting Taiwan.

Samsung has been working hard at getting its HBM business into the arena to better fight South Korean rival SK hynix, with a dedicated HBM team that will increase the output of HBM memory by close to 3x this year. Samsung will also start mass production of its 12-layer HBM memory, as well as 128-bit HBM using 32Gb dies.

Winbond secured a "big red envelope" (money) from Samsung, and a range of memories were adopted by many Samsung terminal devices. AMOLED panels inside of Samsung smartphones have external NOR chips supplied by Winbond, for example.

Winbond's big orders from Samsung will include DDR3 and DDR4 memory, with production capacity to remain steady before the production reduction begins. Samsung has been slowly fading out DDR3 memory from the market, but has expanded its outsourcing strategy, so DDR3 memory continues to live on with Winbond's new contract.

Winbond general manager Chen Peiming estimated that the DDR3 supply and demand market will equalize in Q2 or Q3 2024, which isn't far away and will obviously benefit Winbond's operations.