AMD Taps Samsung As Primary HBM4 Partner For Instinct MI455X AI GPUs
Samsung and AMD have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand their strategic collaboration on next-generation AI memory, including cutting-edge high bandwidth memory for AMD's not-yet-released Instinct MI455X accelerator that was shown off at CES. The announcement comes a month after AMD threw cold water on MI455X delay rumors, calling them total BS.
The expanded pact further solidifies Samsung as a major supplier of next-generation memory products. Just yesterday, Samsung touted its sixth-generation HBM4 for NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform as being in mass production.
For AMD, the deal means it has secured a reliable and steady supply of performant memory chips for its data center hardware. Samsung is poised to be AMD's primary supplier of sixth-gen HBM4 built on a 10-nanometer class DRAM process (1c) and a 4-nanometer logic base die, with speeds of up to 13 gigabits per second (Gbps) and up to 3.3 terabytes per second (TB/s) of memory bandwidth.
"Powering the next generation of AI infrastructure requires deep collaboration across the industry," said Dr. Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of AMD. "We are thrilled to expand our work with Samsung, bringing together their leadership in advanced memory with our Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs and rack-scale platforms. Integration across the full computing stack, from silicon to system to rack, is essential to accelerating AI innovation that translates into real-world impact at scale."
As part of the deal, AMD and Samsung will also collaborate on high-performance DDR5 memory chips optimized for next-generation EPYC processors, codenamed Venice, based on Zen 6. According to the announcement, AMD and Samsung will work on DDR5 memory solutions built on AMD's Helios rack-scale architecture, presumably like the ones that Meta will use in its effort to deploy 6 gigawatts of GPUs in data centers.
"Samsung and AMD share a commitment to advancing AI computing, and this agreement reflects the growing scope of our collaboration," said Young Hyun Jun, Vice Chairman & CEO of Samsung Electronics. "From industry-leading HBM4 and next-generation memory architectures to cutting-edge foundry and advanced packaging, Samsung is uniquely positioned to deliver unrivaled turnkey capabilities that support AMD’s evolving AI roadmap."
Beyond the commitment to supplying key memory products, the two tech titans will also discuss foundry partnership opportunities that would see Samsung provide foundry services for AMD's next-generation products.
