Samsung said on Sunday that a private meeting was held between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong. This hints towards a potential partnership that could materialize between the two companies to develop high-end technologies, according to a report by Yonhap news agency.
The meeting happened earlier this week on Wednesday at Samsung"s semiconductor research center in Silicon Valley. While the two executives have met at several events, this was the first time the two leaders talked in a private setup. The publication reports, citing sources, that Samsung and Tesla have been exploring partnerships related to the development of IT-related technologies, including chips for autonomous cars.
Industry watchers said that the latest meeting could open doors for both companies to work together in the automotive chip sector. Speaking of which, the market for automotive chips is expected to reach $700 billion by 2028. The report says that Lee, who was on a 22-day trip to the U.S., also met other tech executives, including Microsoft"s Satya Nadella and Google"s Sundar Pichai.
Samsung has been working on automotive hardware for quite some time. Last year, the company introduced a new lineup of memory chips for cars designed to cater to modern features such as ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems) and IVI (In-Vehicle-Infotainment). Also, Samsung announced earlier this year that it will manufacture 5nm chips for the US-based fabless semiconductor design company Ambarella, whose new SoC CV3-AD685 was designed to be used as an AI controller for autonomous cars.
Source: Yonhap News