Samsung Electronics’ foundry business is in discussions with BYD and other Chinese automakers to manufacture autonomous-driving system-on-chips, reported Seoul Economic Daily, citing sources.
The news comes as Chinese car companies seek advanced production capacity beyond what domestic suppliers can currently offer.
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The discussions involve chips based on Samsung’s 4nm and 2nm processes, sources said Wednesday.
Last week, BYD unveiled what it called China’s first 4nm intelligent driving chip, the Xuanji A3.
BYD, like nearly all automotive OEMs, even the world’s largest, lacks in-house capability to produce state-of-the-art 4nm chips.
According to GlobalData, Just Auto’s parent, only a handful of foundries currently have the capability to produce chips at the 4nm level, primarily Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Samsung Foundry.
If agreements are reached, the customer roster would expand beyond Chinese EV maker Nio, which already uses Samsung’s 5nm process for autonomous-driving chips.
“The core area Samsung Foundry is currently focusing on most in the Chinese market is automotive electronics,” one industry official was quoted as saying.
“We are actively conducting technical discussions with major Chinese automakers to produce next-generation automotive SoCs using Samsung Foundry’s advanced processes.”
The talks come as Chinese automakers pursue more powerful chips for higher levels of autonomous driving, which require strong computing performance, low power consumption and effective heat control for real-time in-vehicle data processing.
These requirements are pushing manufacturers toward foundries with advanced-process capabilities.
Industry sources said China’s largest foundry, SMIC, remains limited in that regard.
SMIC is producing chips at the 7nm class, but its most advanced capacity is said to be heavily committed to key customers such as Huawei.
Much of its remaining production is concentrated in older 14nm and above nodes, making it harder to support next-generation automotive chip demand.
“With SMIC still showing limitations at the most advanced processes, Samsung Electronics is the most realistic alternative Chinese companies can choose, aside from TSMC,” another industry official said.
“The fact that Samsung has its own automotive chip design and mass production experience, such as ‘Exynos Auto,’ through its System LSI division is also a factor that boosts Chinese companies’ trust.”
Samsung’s 4nm process is viewed by the market as having reached stable yields, while its 2nm gate-all-around technology has gained attention after Tesla selected Samsung to manufacture its next-generation AI6 chip.
Industry observers said successful cooperation in automotive chips could open the door to broader work with Chinese technology groups on AI and high-performance computing semiconductors, although US export controls remain a constraint.
“Chinese companies’ interest in Samsung Foundry is less about evading sanctions and more about finding alternatives in advanced processes,” a semiconductor sector source said.
“If they secure trust in automotive chips, the scope of cooperation could expand to AI chips and high-performance computing chips going forward.”
