Samsung and Hyundai Motor Join Forces in Automotive Semiconductor Market for Electric and Autonomous Vehicles: Supplying ‘Exynos Auto V920’

Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor Company, rivals in the business world, joined hands through automotive semiconductors. It is noteworthy whether the relationship between the two companies, which has changed since former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee created Samsung Motors and entered the automobile industry 20 years ago, will expand cooperation in the era of electric vehicles and self-driving cars. Samsung Electronics announced on the 7th that it will supply ‘Exynos Auto V920′, a processor for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) to Hyundai Motor Company, by 2025. The vehicle infotainment processor is a type of vehicle semiconductor that provides real-time driving information to the driver and high-definition map and video streaming functions. As the direction of the automobile market changes toward electric vehicles and self-driving cars, demand for high-performance automotive semiconductors is increasing. This announcement attracted attention because it was unprecedented for Samsung and Hyundai Motors to officially cooperate. Hyundai Motor Company has kept its distance from strategic cooperation, believing that it can re-enter the automobile industry at any time even after the Samsung Group withdrew from the automobile business right after the 1997 foreign exchange crisis. In particular, when Samsung Electronics spent $8 billion in 2016 to acquire Harman, an American electric vehicle company specializing in infotainment for connected cars, and when Samsung SDI expanded its battery business for electric vehicles, Hyundai Motor Company was wary. did not delay Hyundai Motor Company and Kia have also chosen LG Energy Solutions and SK On as suppliers of electric vehicle batteries. In the meantime, Hyundai Motor Company has been supplied with semiconductors from Intel, Nvidia, Telechips, NXP, and Renesas, not from Samsung Electronics. Automotive semiconductors have been monopolized by semiconductor companies that have maintained cooperative relationships for a long time because of the characteristics of parts that are directly related to the safety of vehicles. Samsung Electronics’ memory semiconductor chips were also loaded into Hyundai Motors, but it was not a major supplier. An official from Hyundai Motor said, “This is the first time (Samsung Electronics) has supplied semiconductors for infotainment.” An official from the business world, who was reluctant to reveal his name, said, “There was no official cooperation with Hyundai Motor Company due to Samsung’s entry into the mass-produced car industry.” It seems that we have joined hands in a meaningful way.” It is relatively recent that Samsung Electronics has focused on developing automotive semiconductors. This is because there is not much demand for semiconductors due to the long replacement cycle of cars compared to smartphones, and in the case of driving semiconductors used in vehicle sensors, they do not require much technology, so competition among companies is fierce and profitability is not high. From the standpoint of Samsung Electronics, the No. 1 memory semiconductor company, there was no need to focus on the automotive market, which accounts for less than 10% of the semiconductor market. However, the atmosphere in the automotive semiconductor market has changed due to the expansion of the electric vehicle industry and the development of autonomous driving technology. While 200 to 300 semiconductors are installed for gasoline and diesel vehicles, the market is growing rapidly, with about 1,000 semiconductors installed in electric cars and more than 2,000 semiconductors in autonomous vehicles. As a result of a survey by IHS Markit, a market research institute, the global automotive semiconductor market exceeded $68 billion as of last year, and is expected to grow to $143 billion in 2029.

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Automotive semiconductors can be largely divided into three types: ‘driver semiconductors’ that operate sensors that detect surroundings, ‘infotainment semiconductors’ that implement image information and entertainment functions, and ‘networking semiconductors’ used for autonomous driving. Networking semiconductors are high-tech semiconductors that use 7-nano-level exposure equipment, so profitability is also high. From the standpoint of Samsung Electronics, it is necessary to secure competitiveness in the automotive semiconductor field to secure future food at a time when prices of DRAM and NAND flash, which are its flagship products, continue to decline. The ‘Exynos Auto V (V) 920’ that Samsung Electronics decided to supply to Hyundai Motor Company is also a high-tech infotainment semiconductor equipped with the latest automotive central processing unit (CPU) and graphic processing unit (GPU). Samsung Electronics supplied ‘Exynos Auto 8890’ to Audi, a German automaker, to the A4 model released at the end of 2019, and supplied ‘Exynos Auto V (V)7’ to Volkswagen in 2021. While doing so, it has developed the competitiveness of vehicle infotainment semiconductors. Earlier this year, it also announced a plan to produce the latest system-on-chip (SoC, CV3-AD685) that requires autonomous driving in cooperation with Ambarella, an American artificial intelligence semiconductor company. The semiconductors used in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are produced in a 5-nano process. An automobile industry official said, “Samsung is a latecomer in the automotive semiconductor field,” but “Samsung Electronics is actively engaged in the automotive electronic equipment business recently.” Taiwan’s TSMC, a foundry (consignment production) specialist, is also strengthening its automotive semiconductor production capabilities in line with market changes. In the first quarter of this year, TSM paid attention to the fact that sales in sectors such as smartphones and Internet of Things (IoT) fell by more than 10%, while sales in automobiles increased by 5%. In order to increase production of automotive semiconductors, the company is negotiating with the German government to build a foundry plant in Dresden, Germany, where major brands of finished cars are located. At the end of April, it also signed a partnership with Honda of Germany to produce automotive semiconductors. By Ok Ki-won and Choi Woo-ri, staff reporters [email protected]