Advanced Micro Devices is deepening its South Korean supply-chain push, with CEO Lisa Su meeting Samsung Electronics and SK hynix executives in Seoul on Wednesday. Su held her first meeting in about seven months with Samsung Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun, head of Device Solutions, at Samsung's Seocho office, while earlier that day she met SK hynix President Kwak Noh-jung for the first time in Korea. AMD senior vice presidents Jack Huynh and Joseph Macri also attended the Samsung meeting.
The central issue is high-bandwidth memory. AMD's next-generation Instinct MI455X accelerator carries 432GB of HBM4, a 50% increase from the 288GB of HBM3E in the MI355X. Su described the memory environment as “very tight” and said AMD is working with customers to use memory more efficiently while pushing suppliers to increase output as quickly as possible.
Samsung has been AMD's preferred HBM4 supplier for the MI455X since an agreement in March. Su said shipments of the MI455 and Helios rack-scale systems, both built on HBM4, have already started. AMD is also discussing additional wafer capacity with TSMC and exploring alternative advanced packaging technologies, while its earlier commitment of more than $10 billion to Taiwan could grow into tens of billions across the wider supply chain.
On foundry cooperation, Su confirmed AMD is still exploring Samsung's foundry services alongside TSMC. AMD currently relies on TSMC for advanced CPUs and GPUs; adding a second manufacturer would require re-qualification and carry yield and timeline risks. Su stopped short of confirming a new deal but stressed Samsung remains an important partner across multiple areas and that AMD needs a broad supply chain planned three to five years ahead.
AMD's data-center momentum underpins the urgency: second-quarter revenue more than doubled year over year, helping push its market value above $1 trillion. The company says demand continues to exceed available supply and plans a substantial increase in production for 2027.
