Samsung, SK Lock In Nearly $1 Trillion in AI Chip Deals With U.S. Tech
Korean semiconductor giants secure long-term partnerships with Broadcom, Nvidia, and Big Tech amid global HBM shortage.
South Korea's chipmakers are cementing their position at the center of the AI boom with nearly $1 trillion in confirmed partnerships with U.S. technology companies. Samsung Electronics and SK Group have announced long-term alliances valued at approximately $950 billion, marking a decisive shift from contract manufacturing to strategic co-architecture of AI hardware.
The Deal Breakdown
Samsung Electronics signed a five-year, $200 billion partnership with Broadcom covering memory chips and foundry manufacturing. The agreement includes supply of next-generation HBM4 and HBM4E products alongside a turnkey solution integrating Samsung's 2-nanometer foundry process with advanced packaging.
SK Group is pursuing agreements totaling $750 billion with Nvidia, Microsoft, Anthropic, and AWS. The centerpiece is a letter of intent with Nvidia worth more than $500 billion, under which SK Telecom will build an AI factory in Korea with up to two gigawatts of computing capacity using Nvidia's Vera Rubin DSX architecture.
Memory Dominance
The alliances reflect the extreme concentration of advanced memory production. According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung and SK Hynix accounted for 79% of global high-bandwidth memory revenue in Q1 2026, with SK Hynix holding approximately 58% and Samsung around 21%. HBM has become the critical bottleneck as AI models demand exponentially greater memory bandwidth.
"As AI infrastructure continues to scale, close collaboration across the semiconductor ecosystem becomes increasingly important," said Charlie Kawwas, president of Broadcom's Semiconductor Solutions Group.
The dependency runs both ways. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won noted that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang "asks for 'more chips' every time they meet," underscoring the insatiable demand from AI data center builders.
Strategic Implications
These partnerships extend beyond simple supply agreements. By integrating foundry, packaging, and memory into turnkey solutions, Samsung and SK are moving up the value chain and gaining influence over the architectural direction of future AI hardware. The deals also reinforce U.S. efforts to secure semiconductor supply chains amid ongoing geopolitical tensions with China.
The scale of capital involved—nearly $1 trillion committed across a handful of companies—highlights the winner-take-all dynamics of the AI infrastructure race. U.S. tech giants are effectively locking in access to the world's most advanced memory and foundry capacity, while Korean chipmakers secure guaranteed demand for years to come.
For the broader industry, the message is clear: in the AI era, semiconductor supply chains are not just infrastructure—they are strategic assets worth nearly a trillion dollars.