Samsung board votes to invest in GPUs: could mean making GPUs, or enhancing semiconductor tech

Samsung Electronics is moving in a slightly different direction it seems, investing in GPU technology that would see it shift away from its typical memory semiconductor, and foundry services.

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In a new report from Business Korea, Samsung Electronics' corporate governance report teases that the management committee ratified the "GPU Investment Proposal" back in March 2024. The committee includes senior executives including Han Jong-hee, the head of the Device eXperience (DX) division, the presidents of the Mobile Experience (MX) and Memory Business departments.

This is not the first meeting, but the third meeting of the year after the first GPU investment decision was publicly disclosed in 2012, which Business Korea reports is "sparking speculation that Samsung is poised to enhance its competitiveness in GPU-related business areas".

Samsung is busy making HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) and running its foundry business, but GPUs are a major part of AI accelerators, with Samsung's in-house System LSI business division working with AMD to develop GPUs for smartphones, which Business Korea adds "holds promising prospects for the foundry business division that fabricates actual semiconductors based on these designs".

Business Korea adds that some interpret that the GPU investment by Samsung it to use GPUs for enhancing the semiconductor process innovation, rather than developing and manufacturing GPUs. Samsung continues to express plans to work with NVIDIA on developing AI-based digital twins for fully automated semiconductor factories by 2030, something the company teased back at NVIDIA's own GTC 2024 event in March 2024.

The outlet added: "Samsung is currently preparing to fully operationalize the newly constructed Hwaseong High-Performance Computing (HPC) Center at its Hwaseong campus. Construction began in November 2021, with completion achieved in April of this year. Despite the increasing complexity and miniaturization of semiconductor processes, Samsung's DS division has been building dedicated IT infrastructure at key manufacturing locations both domestically and internationally, aiming to enhance data utilization rates".

"The substantial investments in GPUs for the Hwaseong HPC Center, which houses large-scale servers and network equipment necessary for semiconductor design, indicate the growing importance of AI computations in Samsung's strategy".