Germany’s Volkswagen and Japan’s Toyota are speeding up their internalization of automotive semiconductors in cooperation with Taiwan’s TSMC. Hyundai Motor Group is also busy strengthening its semiconductor supply chains and internalizing chips.

Berthold Hellenthal, strategic semiconductor manager of Volkswagen said in a keynote speech at Semicon West 2022, a semiconductor fair in the United States, on July 12 (local time) that the German automaker is working with TSMC to develop an exclusive chip for its vehicles.

He disclosed that Volkswagen's CEO recently met with top executives from TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and Qualcomm to discuss semiconductor production capabilities and technologies. He said Volkswagen's top executives are deeply involved in overall semiconductor supply chains.

In the speech, Hellenthal did not mention Volkswagen’s own chip development. However, analysts say that Volkswagen might design semiconductors and outsource their production to TSMC in the future.

TSMC is working on cooperation with global automakers other than Volkswagen. At the end of November last year, General Motors (GM) announced that it will cooperate with TSMC to develop semiconductors for vehicles.

Japanese brands are making every effort to stabilize their semiconductor supply chains. Sony and Denso, an auto parts affiliate of Toyota, announced earlier this year that they would make an equity investment in a new plant to be built by TSMC in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Sony is planning to become the second-largest shareholder of the plant by investing 57 billion yen over the next two years, while Denso will fork over 40 billion yen to secure a stake of more than 10 percent.

Hyundai Motor Co. and its parts affiliate Hyundai Mobis are strengthening their internal semiconductor research and development (R&D) units, while at the same time seeking to develop semiconductors for various electronic devices in cooperation with Korean semiconductor giants. Hyundai Motor may design automotive semiconductors and outsource their production to Samsung Electronics’. Samsung's foundry division produced self-driving chips for Tesla, the largest electric vehicle company in the United States.

The reason why cooperation between automakers and foundry giants is increasing is that the supply of semiconductors in the automobile market has been delayed for more than a year and a half since the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, as the number of semiconductors required per vehicle will increase from about 200 to 2,000 in the future, both automakers and foundry companies are responding to rapidly changing market situations.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved