Samsung Chairman Lee Discusses Automotive Semiconductor Cooperation with Tesla’s Musk
(from left) Tesla Vice President Karn Budhiraj, Tesla CTO Andrew Baglino, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Samsung Electronics DS Division President Kyung Kye-Hyun, Samsung Electronics Foundry Business President Choi Si-young, and Samsung Electronics DSA Vice President Han Jin-man pose for a photo during a visit to the Samsung Semiconductor U.S. R&D Labs in San Jose, California on May 10 (local time).
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong discussed ways to collaborate on automotive semiconductors in a meeting with Tesla CEO Elon Musk during a business trip to the United States.
According to Samsung Electronics on May 14, Lee met with Musk at Samsung Electronics’ North American Semiconductor Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, on May 10, local time. This marked the first time Lee has met with Musk.
Their meeting focused on semiconductors for Tesla’s vehicles. This was hinted at by Musk’s visit to Samsung’s Silicon Valley semiconductor lab and the presence of Kyung Gye-hyun in charge of the semiconductor business and Choi Si-young who heads the foundry business at Samsung.
Tesla is designing its own fully self-driving (FSD) chips which serve as cars’ brains. The chip design and production process can determine the safety of the car, so close cooperation with foundry companies holds the key.
Samsung and Tesla have a strong relationship in the field of autonomous driving semiconductors. The Korean semiconductor giant’s foundry division produced Tesla’s autonomous driving chips. In 2019, Musk officially announced during the introduction of Tesla’s FSD chip that Tesla had entrusted Samsung Electronics to produce the semiconductors at its 14-nm process line. Samsung is still producing Tesla’s self-driving chips at its Austin, Texas, foundry in the United States.
The meeting between the heads of the two companies bodes well for production of existing Tesla chips as well as Samsung taking an order for next-generation FSD chips. Industry watchers are paying much attention to whether Tesla will give a chip foundry order to Samsung or TSMC.