Thanks for the memory, South Korea tells nation's chip makers – now build processors
Thanks for the memory, South Korea tells nation's chip makers – now build processors
President warns of 'all-out national warfare' around silicon as he announces $19B development package
South Korea's president has described the global semiconductor industry as "a field where all-out national warfare is underway" as he announced a $19 billion to diversify the nation's silicon sector.
More competition is always a good thing
Btw I love The Register’s title; they are usually so fun
Idk, S. Korea's chaebols actively reduce competition. So be careful who you want to provide that competition...
Good news, the processor industry really needs more competition
"Thanks for all the good memories"
'And all the bad ones"
Glares at hynix
But beyond Samsung's modest Exynos SoC operation (which can't even satisfy demand for its own Galaxy smartphones), South Korea is not home to a notable manufacturer of high-value processors.
So i guess Samsung will get the lion-share of those $19B to expand?
The world's top two memory chip producers are South Korea's two largest conglomerates (chaebol), Samsung Electronics and the less well-known SK Hynix. Together, they account for some 70% of the market in Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and 50% in flash memory (NAND).
Samsung used to be amazing. After seeing how they are operating the last 5 years or so, I do not trust them at all. They screwed people on the SSD issues and didn't properly address it after repeatedly questioned over it. That was last February (2023) and wasn't the first time they had looked into this issue. You generally don't go from zero to questioning reliability overnight.
Now most recently, today in fact, it seems that Samsung hasn't changed at all and they just don't fucking care anymore. They literally just ignored a company they had plans with and ghosted them. iFixit Doubts Samsung’s Commitment to Accessible Repairs, Ends Partnership.
Wonder if they will go the risc-v route.
x86 would be hilarious to invest in now.
Samsung already makes arm
They also use risc-v since 2017
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15228/samsung-to-use-riscv-cores
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In remarks presented on Thursday at a government economic review meeting, President Yoon Suk Yeol called for South Korea to "open a new future for the semiconductor industry."
To make that happen, South Korea has created a $19 billion program to fund construction of chipmaking mega-clusters – especially the electrical and transport infrastructure they need.
The United States and European Union have thrown tens of billions of dollars and euros respectively at IC manufacturers, while South Korea's chip champs – Samsung Electronics and SK hynix – are indeed monsters of memory as they collectively hold over 70 percent of the market for DRAM and NAND flash.
But beyond Samsung's modest Exynos SoC operation (which can't even satisfy demand for its own Galaxy smartphones), South Korea is not home to a notable manufacturer of high-value processors.
Samsung and SK hynix have also made enormous bets on factories to produce more memory – some on the peninsula and others stateside (where they could attract funds from Uncle Sam).
Memory-centric analyst firm TrendForce recently worried out loud about AI-fuelled demand for HBM skewing manufacturing investments away from DRAM, and maybe causing a shortage of the latter in years to come.
The original article contains 680 words, the summary contains 197 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
South Korea is planning to Shift gears to catch up in the race.