Samsung Electronics Co. and Japan’s Sony Group Corp. are expected to seek ties in the field of high-performance and high-capacity memory chips essential for autonomous vehicles that have been growing in demand amid technological breakthroughs.

According to multiple sources from the conglomerate circle on Monday, Sony Chairman Kenichiro Yoshida visited Samsung Electronics’ Pyeongtaek Campus in Gyeonggi Province. He was greeted by Kyung Kye-hyun, head of device solutions division at Samsung Electronics. Jay Y. Lee, executive chairman of Samsung Electronics, wasn’t present.

Kyung and Yoshida also visited Samsung Electronics’ Cheonan and Onyang campuses and examined chip advanced packaging facilities.

Yoshida’s visit comes after met with Kyung at Sony headquarters in Tokyo in November last year. Kyung at the time posted an autonomous vehicle photo on his social media.

Samsung Electronics and Sony are considered rivals in the image sensor market but they are in a cooperative relationship in other areas. Samsung Display Co. supplies quantum dot organic light emitting diodes (QD-OLED) to Sony.

The two companies also established a joint liquid crystal display (LCD) panel manufacturing entity, S-LCD, in 2004, although the partnership ended in 2012.

Yoshida’s Seoul visit is observed to have involved discussions on high-performance and high-capacity memory chips essential in autonomous vehicles.

When Kyung visited Sony headquarters, chip industry insiders expected him to have discussed partnership in chips for autonomous vehicles with Yoshida.

Sony is engaged in the development of autonomous vehicles with Honda through a joint venture Sony Honda Mobility. The joint entity unveiled a new autonomous electric vehicle prototype called Afeela at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year in Las Vegas, U.S.

Samsung Electronics has announced the goal of becoming a leader in the automotive memory chip market in 2025. It presented the area as a growth engine.

The latest meeting between Kyung and Yoshida is seen as a response by Samsung Electronics to its rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) expanding its business in Japan, insiders said.

TSMC has joined hands with Sony and is building a factory in the Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan. The company also announced plans recently to build an additional fab in Kumamoto that will produce automotive chips.

Samsung Electronics is expected to be active in forging ties with Sony given that it is a major client in the automotive chip market, sources said. Last year, Sony joined hands with major tech firms including Toyota Motor Corp., Kioxia Holdings Corp., and SoftBank Corp., to set up a chip venture Rapidus Corp.

By: DocMemory
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