Samsung, SK Hynix sign $950B in chip deals with U.S. firms

Samsung Electronics and Broadcom ↘ 4.76% announced a sweeping memorandum of understanding on Friday covering more than $200 billion in cooperation across memory chips, contract chip manufacturing, and advanced packaging through 2030, the companies said in a statement reported by Reuters.reuters

The deal was signed during the San Francisco AI Summit convened by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, where leaders of Korea's largest conglomerates met with chief executives from Broadcom, Nvidia ↘ 2.01%, OpenAI, and Anthropic.keia+1

A Broader Push for AI Chip Dominance

The Samsung-Broadcom pact was part of a combined $950 billion in chip supply agreements announced by Samsung and SK Hynix with U.S. technology companies, according to Reuters. SK Hynix committed to $750 billion in long-term memory chip supply deals, while Samsung's $200 billion agreement with Broadcom covers high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators and the manufacturing of Broadcom's next-generation communications chips using Samsung's sub-2-nanometer process technology.globalbankingandfinance+2

"The expanded collaboration reflects Samsung's focus on supporting customers with end-to-end semiconductor technologies across an increasingly diverse range of AI and high-performance computing applications," Samsung said in a statement.globalbankingandfinance

Challenging TSMC's Foundry Lead

The partnership pairs Broadcom's position as a leading designer of application-specific integrated circuits for AI workloads with Samsung's manufacturing capabilities, combining custom chip design with advanced fabrication and packaging. For Samsung, the deal represents a step toward narrowing the gap with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company ↘ 1.67%, which dominates advanced chip production for the world's largest technology firms.globalbankingandfinance

Samsung said earlier this year it planned to invest more than 110 trillion won — roughly $73 billion — in chip capacity expansion and research in 2026. Last month, Samsung co-CEO Jun Young-hyun said he had discussed next-generation foundry cooperation with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, including work on future HBM4E and HBM5 memory products.telecom.economictimes.indiatimes+2

The AI Summit drew about 150 attendees, including Samsung Chairman Jay Y. Lee, SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, and the CEOs of Nvidia, Broadcom, OpenAI, and Anthropic, according to Seoul Economic Daily. Kim Yong-beom, chief of South Korea's Presidential Policy Office, said ahead of the summit that the trip would yield "not just simple company-to-company MOUs, but many quite large and meaningful numbers".sedaily