Samsung Electronics will give AMD priority access to its next-generation AI memory. Samsung Electronics said on March 18 it signed a memorandum of understanding with AMD at its Pyeongtaek site to expand cooperation in next-generation AI memory and computing technologies. The signing was attended by Jun Young-hyun (전영현), head of Samsung Electronics’ DS division, and Lisa Su (리사 수), AMD’s CEO, along with other executives from both companies.

Under the agreement, Samsung Electronics will supply AMD first with HBM4 that will be used in AI accelerators. The product is set to be deployed in AMD’s next-generation AI accelerator, the Instinct MI455X GPU, with HBM4 to be installed in earnest. The MI455X GPU is a data centre AI computing accelerator that performs training and inference for AI models.

The HBM4 offers data processing speeds of up to 13 Gbps, compared with an industry standard of 8 Gbps, and bandwidth of up to 3.3 terabytes per second. Samsung Electronics began mass production shipments of HBM4 based on 1c DRAM and 4-nanometre base-die technology from February, the first in the industry. Samsung Electronics said it plans to strengthen its leadership in the HBM market by supplying HBM4 to AMD.

The companies also expanded the scope of cooperation in the AI data centre field. They will work jointly on high-performance DDR5 memory solutions to boost the performance of the rack-unit AI server integrated platform Helios and the sixth-generation EPYC server CPU.

Samsung Electronics also agreed to continue discussions with AMD on foundry cooperation to contract-manufacture AMD’s next-generation products. The arrangement would expand cooperation with AMD based on a turnkey solution spanning memory, foundry and packaging.

Jun said, "Samsung and AMD share a common goal of advancing AI computing, and this agreement will broaden the scope of cooperation between the two companies." He added, "From industry-leading HBM4 and next-generation memory architecture to cutting-edge foundry and packaging technologies, Samsung has unrivalled turnkey capabilities to support AMD’s AI roadmap."

Su said, "Close cooperation across the industry is essential to implement next-generation AI infrastructure." She added, "I am very pleased that we will combine Samsung’s leadership in advanced memory technologies with AMD’s Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs and rack-scale platforms."

Previously, Samsung Electronics has played a role as a key supplier of HBM3E installed in AMD’s latest AI accelerators, the MI350X and MI355. A Samsung Electronics official said, "Through this MOU, the two companies will cooperate even more closely in next-generation memory for AI and data centres, and will work to provide customers with optimal AI infrastructure."