Samsung Electronics just signed a $200 billion partnership with Broadcom to make AI chips. That's billion with a B. The kind of money that could buy every failing semiconductor startup in Silicon Valley and still have enough left over to fund another decade of Samsung's foundry division losing to TSMC.
Broadcom needs chips. Samsung makes chips. This sounds simple until you remember Samsung's foundry business has been getting its ass kicked for years while TSMC prints money like they invented Moore's Law themselves. But sure, hand over $200 billion to the company that couldn't even get their yield rates competitive on 3-nanometer. What could go wrong.
Retail traders saw "AI chip partnership" and probably creamed their cargo shorts. They love this sh*t. Big numbers. Buzzwords. A press release that sounds like the future but is really just two corporations signing a contract that'll take a decade to fulfill and probably get renegotiated twice before a single wafer ships.
The partnership is supposed to boost Samsung's foundry push. You know what else was supposed to boost Samsung's foundry push? The last ten years of Samsung's foundry push. They've been pushing so hard they're basically doing a Sisyphus impression while TSMC sits at the top of the hill eating lunch.
Broadcom gets supply chain diversification. Samsung gets to pretend they're relevant in advanced chip manufacturing. Investors get another headline to misinterpret. And you get to watch $200 billion slowly turn into whatever the semiconductor equivalent of vaporware is over the next eight years.
The real winner here is whoever negotiated Broadcom's exit clause.
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