Meeting at Samsung Electronics North America Semiconductor Research Center
Expanding the Share of Automotive Semiconductors in the Foundry Business
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong met with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, during his business trip to the United States to focus on the automotive semiconductor business, which is considered a key future growth area.
Samsung Electronics announced that on the 10th, Chairman Lee met with CEO Musk at Samsung Electronics' North America Semiconductor Research Center in Silicon Valley to discuss cooperation plans related to future advanced industries. This is the first time Chairman Lee has held a separate meeting with CEO Musk.
CEO Musk leads Tesla, the world's largest electric vehicle company. He also operates advanced technology companies in areas such as next-generation satellite communications (Starlink), space exploration (SpaceX), next-generation mobility (Hyperloop), and artificial intelligence (Neuralink and OpenAI).
Samsung Electronics and Tesla have been actively exchanging ideas to develop next-generation IT technologies, including the joint development of fully autonomous driving semiconductors. Attention is focused on whether Samsung Electronics will expand its territory in automotive system semiconductors following the meeting between Chairman Lee and CEO Musk.
From the second person on the left, Choi Joo-sun, President of Samsung Display; Kan Budiraji, Vice President of Tesla; Andrew Baglino, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Tesla; Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics; Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla; Kyung Kye-hyun, President of Samsung Electronics DS Division; Choi Si-young, President of Samsung Electronics Foundry Business; and Han Jin-man, Vice President of Samsung Electronics DSA, are taking a commemorative photo. / Photo by Samsung Electronics
Based on its experience producing fully autonomous driving semiconductors for Tesla, Samsung Electronics is increasing its influence in the automotive semiconductor market by receiving orders for high-performance semiconductor foundry production from Mobileye, a company specializing in autonomous driving cameras and software development. It is also producing system-on-chip (SoC) semiconductors for autonomous vehicles from Ambarella, an artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor company, using a 5-nanometer (nm; 1 nm = one billionth of a meter) process.
Samsung Electronics has recently strengthened its technological leadership by introducing a 4 nm process to expand its automotive semiconductor business in the foundry (semiconductor foundry production) sector. The company has also announced plans to increase the revenue share of non-mobile product lines in its foundry business to over 50% by 2027 by expanding new customers in the autonomous vehicle sector.
According to market research firms Strategy Analytics and Research and Markets, the global automotive parts market is expected to grow to $400 billion (approximately 520 trillion won) in 2024 and $700 billion (approximately 910 trillion won) by 2028. As cars evolve into electric and autonomous vehicles, the number and variety of semiconductors used are expected to increase.
Chairman Lee visited the United States on April 20 as part of President Yoon Suk-yeol's economic delegation during his state visit. Over the following 22 days, he actively visited both the East and West coasts, focusing on future growth opportunities. This marks the longest business trip in history. During this trip, he met with executives from Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), Biogen, Google, Microsoft (MS), and Nvidia.
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