Samsung offers memory as leverage for AMD foundry orders; AMD stays cautious
AMD CEO Lisa Su visited South Korea to secure stable high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply for its AI accelerators and said she would discuss a broader partnership with Samsung executives. Samsung hopes to use its memory supply as leverage to win foundry production of AMD's advanced logic chips; according to Korean outlet THE ELEC, the two firms signed a three-year, non-binding MOU in March 2026 covering HBM4 and advanced DDR5 supply, joint memory optimization for AI and HPC, evaluation of AMD platforms made at Samsung foundry, and advanced packaging cooperation. Su also confirmed AMD has begun shipping next-generation Instinct MI455 chips with 432GB of HBM4 and Helios AI rack systems, with Samsung currently the main HBM4 supplier for the MI400 series, though AMD warned in its latest annual report that shifting production to a new foundry could bring delays, lower yields or weaker performance.
If memory supply can really be traded for foundry orders, it would reshape AI accelerator capacity and supply chains — but for now it remains a non-binding framework.