Samsung Electronics to make Nvidia gaming chips

Samsung Electronics will manufacture Nvidia's latest gaming chips, industry sources said Wednesday, as the Korean tech giant eyes to expand its presence in the foundry industry.

Nvidia's new RTX 3000 series graphics processing units (GPUs) will be produced by Samsung's 8-nanometer process node, according to the sources. Nvidia's latest chips will be about 10 percent faster than other Samsung-made chips fabricated with the same 8-nanometer process, they added.

The U.S.-based graphic card titan has been relying on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for its chip production, but the latest collaboration offers Samsung more growth momentum in its foundry business.

Last month, IBM announced that its Power 10 chip will be manufactured by Samsung using its 7-nanometer technology.

Samsung has vowed to invest 133 trillion won ($112 billion) to become the world's No. 1 logic chipmaker by 2030 and bolster its competitiveness in the system LSI and foundry businesses.

Samsung, the world's largest memory chip producer, trails far behind TSMC in the foundry market. According to market researcher TrendForce, Samsung is estimated to have a 17.4 percent market share in the global foundry industry in the third quarter of the year, while TSMC is expected to continue its dominance with a 53.9 percent market share.

Analysts said the deal with Nvidia will boost sales of Samsung's foundry business and increase its chance of getting more manufacturing orders from other chip designers.

"Samsung's foundry business has had lots of experiences making smartphone-use small chips," said Kim Yang-jae, an analyst at KTB Investment & Securities. "But the latest deals with IBM and Nvidia provide a good reference for Samsung mass-producing PC-use big chips."

Kim added the orders from IBM and Nvidia could also lead to Samsung securing deals with two other American semiconductor giants, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel, in the future.

Yonhap