Seoul — Samsung Electronics plans to invest $116bn in non-memory chips by 2030to cut its reliance on the volatile memory chip market and develop chips to power self-driving cars and artificial intelligence-enabled devices. The plan underscores the South Korean firm’s ambition to challenge bigger rivals — Taiwan’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) in contract chip manufacturing and San Diego-based Qualcomm in mobile processing chips — as the memory chip market contracts sharply after years of an unprecedented boom. Global semiconductor makers are in a race to produce powerful chips to support new technologies such as fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks, connected cars and artificial intelligence (AI). In March, US chip supplier Nvidia agreed to buy Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies for $6.8bn, beating rival Intel in a deal that would help Nvidia boost its data centre and AI businesses. Samsung, which has expanded its chip business largely through organic investmen...

Subscribe now to unlock this article.

Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).

There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.

Cancel anytime.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.