AI Chips

Tesla has reportedly signed a $16.5 billion deal with Samsung for AI chip manufacturing, intended for electric vehicles and robotics. The agreement focuses on the AI6 chip, potentially utilizing a 2nm process with production in Austin, Texas, starting in 2025. Despite this, Morgan Stanley analysts believe the deal will only minimally impact TSMC’s revenue, estimating a 1% reduction, as TSMC remains a key supplier for Tesla and xAI. TSMC is set to launch its 3nm A15 chip in 2026, while Samsung’s A16 isn’t expected until 2027.

In 2018, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang proposed a collaboration with Samsung encompassing HBM, advanced process node development, and CUDA advancement. Reportedly rejected due to Samsung’s internal challenges, this decision allowed Nvidia to partner with SK Hynix for HBM, a lucrative alliance that saw SK Hynix’s share price surge. Meanwhile, Samsung now lags in HBM production and the AI chip foundry market, dominated by TSMC for Nvidia’s chips. Samsung is now trying to catch up, aiming for HBM4 contracts.

Zhou Hongyi, chairman of 360 Group, views Nvidia’s H20 chip for China as a sign of ongoing US-China AI competition. Despite Nvidia’s 30-year lead, Zhou and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang acknowledge Huawei’s remarkable progress in GPU development. Huang highlights Nvidia’s AI ecosystem investments, while Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei emphasizes using methods like stacking and clustering to compensate for single-chip limitations, focusing on mid-to-low-end chips and software advancements.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited China, praising its AI development and hinting at a shift in Nvidia’s strategy amid US chip restrictions. While downplaying GPU criticality, Nvidia aims to promote its new China-specific B30 chip and robotic technologies. Huang’s remarks suggest a willingness to tolerate CUDA compatibility from competitors, reflecting concerns about losing market share to domestic AI chip makers like Huawei and Cambricon, and a desire to maintain influence through its CUDA ecosystem, even with potential hardware revenue losses.

NVIDIA’s H20 series AI chips have U.S. approval for reintroduction to China alongside a new RTX Pro GPU for the Chinese market. Morgan Stanley sees this as a positive catalyst for BAT, anticipating increased capital expenditure for AI, cloud services, and e-commerce enhancements. Chinese firms like Tencent and ByteDance are placing orders, requiring U.S. government approval. The move aims to counter Huawei’s dominance in the Chinese market by providing an alternative, potentially limiting Huawei’s global competitiveness despite its technological advancements.

Malaysia is implementing a licensing regime for U.S.-made high-performance AI chip exports and transshipments to prevent diversion, especially to China. Effective immediately, entities suspecting misuse must notify authorities 30 days prior to export and obtain permits. This addresses regulatory loopholes, with plans to add AI chips to the Strategic Items List. This follows U.S. efforts to tighten export controls on advanced NVIDIA GPUs to Malaysia and Thailand, requiring licenses to prevent re-export to China.

Analysts boosted AMD’s stock to ‘buy’ with a $200 target, citing its MI350 AI chips as a strong Nvidia competitor. Increased optimism centers on the MI350’s performance rivaling Nvidia’s Blackwell and higher-than-expected pricing, with the MI355 model now projected to sell for $25,000. HSBC significantly raised AMD’s projected 2026 AI chip revenue to $15.1 billion (up from $9.6B). The positive outlook drove AMD’s stock up 4.15% recently.

Huawei is expanding into the global AI chip market, targeting the Middle East (UAE, Saudi Arabia) and Southeast Asia (Thailand) with its Ascend 910B chip, challenging NVIDIA. To attract clients, it’s promoting its CloudMatrix 384 super AI server, powered by the Ascend 910C chip. This server integrates 384 Ascend NPUs and 192 Kunpeng CPUs, offering high throughput (2,300 tokens/sec) and massive scalability (up to 160,000 cards). It supports stable, resilient operation. While highlighting its AI cloud services as ideal for large models, Huawei is not exporting the Ascend 910C overseas due to supply constraints, prioritizing Chinese firms impacted by US restrictions. (98 words)

AMD CEO Lisa Su is challenging NVIDIA’s dominance in the booming AI chip market. AMD’s new MI355 chips reportedly outperform NVIDIA’s offerings in AI software execution and offer a price advantage. Su forecasts the AI chip market will exceed $500 billion. OpenAI will utilize AMD’s chips, and the company aims to significantly expand its market share, though NVIDIA currently leads with substantial revenue. The MI series is pivotal for AMD’s growth.

TSMC CEO C.C. Wei, addressing a shareholder meeting, acknowledged the indirect impact of US tariffs. While recognizing potential price and demand fluctuations, Wei remained optimistic about the semiconductor industry, particularly AI chips. He highlighted strong, consistently unmet demand for AI processors and confidently forecast a “very good” outlook for TSMC over the next decade.