[Asia Economy reporters Yujin Cho and Suhwan Kim] Tesla, the world's largest electric vehicle company, is reportedly negotiating semiconductor pre-purchase agreements with Samsung Electronics, Taiwan's TSMC, and others to cope with the shortage of automotive semiconductors. Tesla is also considering acquiring a foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) company. Leading the global electric vehicle market, Tesla has been known as a 'super gap' (top-tier client) to parts suppliers, but it appears to have sent out an SOS signal amid the semiconductor shortage crisis.
According to foreign media on the 26th (local time), Tesla is negotiating the purchase of semiconductor chips with semiconductor companies in Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. Citing sources involved in the negotiations, the media reported that Tesla unusually proposed advance payment methods to secure semiconductors.
Along with this, Tesla is exploring ways to directly acquire a foundry company to respond to the semiconductor supply crisis. Discussions about Tesla acquiring a semiconductor foundry are currently in the early stages, and considering the enormous acquisition costs, it seems unlikely that these talks will materialize.
Tesla's move comes amid a global shortage of automotive semiconductors, which has disrupted vehicle production for automakers worldwide. Some automakers have halted or closed vehicle production plants. Credit rating agency Fitch forecasted that annual vehicle sales in the automotive industry could decline by about 5%.
It is analyzed that Tesla has started pre-purchasing semiconductors by paying foundry companies in advance to overcome this semiconductor supply shortage. Tesla has relied on Samsung Electronics and TSMC for semiconductor supply.
Until now, the semiconductor foundry industry has avoided pre-purchase contracts. This is because flexibly reallocating supply volumes to customers according to the scale of purchase payments helps profitability. In the case of Taiwan's TSMC, there has been only one instance where supply volume was allocated exclusively to a specific customer.
However, with Tesla pushing for semiconductor pre-purchases, there is a forecast that the business practices of the foundry industry will also change. Recently, Cisco, a U.S. telecommunications equipment company, announced that it deposited payment funds to pre-purchase semiconductors from a specific foundry company.
A senior Samsung official currently supplying semiconductors to Tesla said that customers are increasingly demanding specialized semiconductors tailored to their products, and that existing semiconductor supply contract methods will need to change.
Meanwhile, Tesla has also shown its intention to build its own parts supply system at a presentation last year when it revealed plans for in-house battery production. Tesla currently has an engineering team that designs semiconductors installed in autonomous vehicles. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is considering ways to receive more specialized semiconductor parts for electric vehicle development, and as part of this, is collaborating with Samsung Electronics to develop 5nm-class automotive semiconductors dedicated to autonomous vehicles.
However, some in the market express concerns about Tesla's aggressive expansion. They argue that it is 'too far-fetched' for a finished car manufacturer like Tesla to acquire a foundry company and directly operate the business. Considering the investment costs for cutting-edge facilities exceeding $20 billion and the complex design processes, the risks of directly operating the business are not insignificant.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
