Samsung and SK hynix plan $950 billion in chip supply agreements with US technology firms

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix plan to supply US technology companies with memory chips and related services under agreements worth a combined $950 billion, a South Korean presidential adviser said on Saturday.

The announcement came during President Lee Jae Myung’s visit to San Francisco for meetings with US technology executives, including OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei and Broadcom chief executive Hock Tan.

Kim Yong-beom, South Korea’s presidential chief of staff for policy, said the two chipmakers and US technology companies had agreed to pursue cooperation in the sector.

Kim said SK hynix planned a five-year cooperation agreement worth $750 billion to supply memory chips to companies including Nvidia.

He said Samsung Electronics and Broadcom had also signed a $200 billion memorandum of understanding covering advanced memory-chip supplies and foundry services for AI chip production over the next five years.

Samsung said the planned collaboration with Broadcom would include high-bandwidth memory and other memory products for Broadcom’s next-generation AI accelerators.

SK hynix said its cooperation with Nvidia would include supplying memory chips, developing large-scale AI infrastructure and jointly developing next-generation AI memory products.

Samsung and SK hynix are two of the world’s leading advanced memory-chip producers, alongside US-based Micron. Their high-bandwidth memory chips are used with graphics processors in artificial-intelligence systems.

South Korea has pledged to triple its AI spending this year as it seeks to become one of the world’s leading countries in the sector alongside the United States and China.

The growth of the AI industry has also increased employee demands over pay. Samsung avoided a major strike in May after agreeing a bonus deal with its largest union.