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Lisa Su’s Seoul Visit: AMD Courts Korean AI Chipmakers and Partners

By Freedom251 Team · · 3 min read

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AMD CEO Lisa Su’s October 7, 2026, visit to Seoul was a push to strengthen the supply chain and widen the AI ecosystem around AMD—not an announcement of a confirmed Samsung chip-manufacturing deal. AMD discussed memory and foundry opportunities with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix while exploring ways to connect AMD processors with South Korean AI chips, software, and infrastructure.

What Lisa Su discussed with Samsung and SK hynix

Su, AMD’s chair and CEO, visited Seoul for AMD Gamer Day and meetings with government and semiconductor-industry participants. Yonhap reported that she described AMD as exploring opportunities with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix in memory and foundry. “Semiconductors is a team sport. A team sport means there is collaboration,” Su said, according to Yonhap.

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The clearest existing business relationship in the reporting concerns memory. Yonhap said AMD and Samsung agreed in March 2026 on a supply deal covering next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other advanced memory chips. It also reported that Samsung supplied HBM3E and HBM4 for AMD’s latest AI accelerators and had been named a preferred HBM4 supplier for AMD’s next-generation Instinct MI455X.

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That memory cooperation should not be conflated with foundry manufacturing. Yonhap characterized possible Samsung contract manufacturing of AMD chips as speculation; it did not report a confirmed foundry agreement. The Ministry of Science and ICT briefing, as reported by CHOSUNBIZ, also gave no specific chip-supply quantities for the broader Korean initiative.

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Which Korean AI companies joined the AMD initiative?

The Korea effort extends beyond chip design. SBS reported that AMD and South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT discussed heterogeneous AI infrastructure: systems combining AMD CPUs and GPUs with domestic AI semiconductors, with participating companies connected to AMD’s ROCm software ecosystem. The idea is to combine different kinds of processors and supporting technology rather than rely on one chip type alone.

A roundtable brought together 14 South Korean companies across NPUs, software, memory and storage, networking, cloud, and AI models:

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  • Memory and storage: Fadu.

The categories above describe the areas SBS associated with the roundtable, not a claim that every company has announced a finalized AMD product integration. The initiative was presented as a route to future cooperation and demonstration, not as proof that the systems are already deployed at scale.

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Why South Korea matters to AMD’s AI ambitions

AI accelerator production depends on more than processor design: it also requires access to advanced memory and a wider network of manufacturing and infrastructure partners. Samsung and SK hynix are therefore relevant to AMD both as memory suppliers and as potential participants in broader semiconductor cooperation.

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Aju Press reported, attributing the figure to Counterpoint Research, that Samsung and SK hynix together accounted for more than 80% of global HBM revenue in the second quarter. That is a figure reported secondhand by Aju Press, not independently confirmed here against Counterpoint’s original publication. Su also pointed to increasing demand for AI computing and the need to expand supply. Aju Press quoted her saying, “The main thing that we see in the market today is that the demand for AI compute continues to go up,” and that AMD was pursuing “all kinds of avenues to increase our overall supply.”

What is planned for an AMD Korea AI research center?

CHOSUNBIZ reported that AMD and the ministry were pursuing a demonstration project and that a Korean AI research center was targeted for establishment within 2026. Reports discussed hundreds of researchers, but the center’s location had not been decided. Officials also had not specified how many chips would be supplied to support the initiative.

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Those details matter: the center, demonstration, and compute support were reported as plans, not as a completed facility with a confirmed location, staffing level, or supply commitment. The available reporting describes the intended direction but does not establish when the center will open or what equipment it will receive.

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How this fits AMD’s competition with Nvidia

The Korea initiative addresses several inputs to AI competition: access to HBM and other supply, the breadth of systems and software partners, and the possibility of integrating domestic NPUs with AMD CPUs and GPUs. If the proposed demonstration and ecosystem work lead to deployed infrastructure and quantified supply agreements, they could strengthen AMD’s ability to offer customers more ways to assemble AI systems.

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But this visit does not establish that AMD has closed the gap with Nvidia in product performance, sales, or market share. The cited reporting provides no balanced AMD-versus-Nvidia benchmark comparison. The meaningful test is whether the announced partnerships become working systems, repeatable software support, and reliable supply—not the fact of a roundtable alone.

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AI chipsAMDHBMLisa SuNVIDIASouth Korea

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