AMD CEO Lisa Su said on Wednesday that the U.S. chipmaker continues to explore partnership opportunities with Samsung Electronics. She said the talks cover both the memory and foundry businesses.
Su made the comments to reporters during a visit to Seoul, South Korea. The trip included meetings with major Korean chip companies.
She said she had already met with executives at SK Hynix. Her schedule also included a meeting with executives from Samsung Electronics.
Memory Chip Supply Remains Tight
Su addressed the current shortage of memory chips during her remarks. Memory supply has been tight as demand for computing power grows.
In response, Su said AMD is "working with our customers to optimise their memory footprint so that we can satisfy more computing going forward."
This means AMD is helping customers use memory more efficiently. The goal is to support more computing with the chips that are available.
Su also had a direct message for memory makers. She said she encourages suppliers to "build faster, as fast as possible."
Su said overall demand for data centre products remained very strong. She added that AMD is seeing strong demand signals across its product portfolio.
AMD and Samsung Build on March Agreement
Su made clear that South Korean companies play a key role in AMD's plans. "I think we very much rely on the Korean supply chain," she said.
She added that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are "key for us to accomplish our broad ambition in data centres."
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are two of the world's largest memory chip makers. Both companies supply memory used in artificial intelligence systems.
In March, AMD and Samsung Electronics signed a memorandum of understanding. The deal aimed to expand their strategic partnership on memory chip supplies for artificial intelligence infrastructure.
At the time, the companies said they would also discuss opportunities for a foundry partnership. A foundry makes chips for other companies based on their designs.
Under such a partnership, Samsung could provide contract chip manufacturing services for next-generation AMD products.
Su did not announce a final foundry agreement on Wednesday. She said AMD continues to explore the partnership as she prepared to meet with Samsung Electronics executives in Seoul.
