Samsung
Samsung Foundry gearing up to make its debut in the GPU industry
Samsung Electronics is playing with new strategies as it teases investment to get into the GPU market. The giant has recently approved an investment in the GPU business, suggesting that it is looking forward to making its debut in the GPU industry.
Reports of Samsung’s intention to build GPUs come into existence in its FY 2023 Corporate Government Report, which hits a March 19, 2024, meeting of its Management Committee during which “Investment in GPU Business” was approved. One possibility is that it is readying its foundry business to build GPUs. Samsung is the world’s second-largest foundry business by revenue, behind TSMC.
However, it could be possible that Samsung’s GPU investment might be about building them for others, not necessarily making their own. As a major foundry already, the Korean giant could be gearing up to expand its services to include building GPUs. This would benefit other brands, such as NVIDIA, by offering another manufacturing option, especially considering the current high demand for AI and the potential risks associated with TSMC’s location.
Building its GPUs for smartphone devices is another probability. Samsung already bakes GPUs into its Exynos SoCs, but its latest model, the 2400, includes an Xclipse 940 GPU built on AMD’s RDNA 3 architecture. The Korean giant uses Exynos silicon in several devices but generally integrates its silicon and Qualcomm’s across its range of flagship Galaxy S devices. The report from Korean media suggests that Samsung will debut its Exynos in 2025, which will outperform Qualcomm’s chips.
The other rumor hints that 2026’s Exynos models will add a Samsung-developed GPU. The reason behind this decision appears to be a new strategic move to gain more control over its device hardware. Somewhere, it seems that it can’t replicate control over both the hardware and software of Apple completely because it relies on Android. However, it is possible that building their GPUs would permit the brand to better customize their devices. This could lead to improvements in areas such as on-device AI and mobile gaming performance.
Building premium GPUs is a tough challenge; making compatible parts to work with Nvidia’s software (CUDA) could be an option, although Nvidia would potentially fight back legally stronger against Samsung as compared to Chinese companies.
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Samsung is going through a quite busy schedule, as it is about to launch its next-generation foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 6and Galaxy Z Flip 6, and a few more wearable products. Meanwhile, it has also started working on the flagship Galaxy S25 series, which is supposed to be launched in early 2025. The forthcoming series is rumored to use MediaTek chips.
If the rumor is to be believed, Samsung may shake hands with MediaTek chips for its upcoming Galaxy S25 series. The report hints particularly at going with the flagship Dimensity 9400 chip, potentially alongside the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and Samsung’s own Exynos 2500. This cloud resulted in Samsung’s next flagship family featuring three different systems on chips (SoCs) across various markets.
If this report comes true, then it could be the reason for reducing the price of the series. The MediaTek chip may be budgetable as compared to Qualcomm’s SoC. However, it has yet to be confirmed that Samsung’s consideration of the high-end MediaTek chipset is due to Qualcomm’s rumored price hike for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 or poor yields on the Exynos 2500.
The current Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC costs approximately $190–$200, but it seems that its successor, Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, might be priced as high as $260 per unit. Additionally, the yield of 3nm Exynos 2500 is only about 40%, falling short of the necessary 60% for mass production. It is also reported that the Korean giant is now working on upgrading its Exynos 2500 by August.
If the yields of the brand remain low and Qualcomm’s next-generation chipset could be costly, it could be beneficial for Samsung to use MediaTek in their chipset lineup. This move could also serve as a consultation tactic with Qualcomm, providing Samsung with more flexibility in its approach to the production of its upcoming Galaxy S25 family.
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Samsung Electronics is collaborating with a space startup to test memory chips in space, as it announced it has signed an agreement with the domestic micro-stellite startup Nara Space Techology Inc. to build infrastructure for evaluating how well chips hold up in space environments.
The reason behind this partnership is just to send a Samsung Electronics memory semiconductor evaluation tester to space on the South Korean rocket Nuri, which is scheduled for its fourth launch next year. The focus of this collaboration is to conduct reliability tests on memory semiconductors in space by incorporating the testers into the domestic component verification satellite, which will be launched as a secondary payload on the Nuri space rocket.
Nara Space is looking forward to taking a significant role in Samsung’s mission to test memory chips in space, for which it will design and develop the physical equipment that will be capable of holding two efficient components, including Samsung’s memory semiconductors and reliability evaluation testers.
Nara Space is actively working on a specialized container that will have the power to house both the chips and the testing tools. The startup will also participate in the equipment’s performance just to make sure that it operates reliably in space.
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Samsung Galaxy S24 owners are facing an inconvenience while transferring images to their phones using Samsung’s Smart Switch software.
Fortunately, the brand has acknowledged the issue on time, and now with the next software update for the Galaxy S24 series, it will fix the issue.
Galaxy S24 editing issues in the Gallery app will be fixed with incoming software update
The issue occurs with the photo editor built into the Galaxy app while editing images transferred to their phones through Smart Switch. The Galaxy S24 owners noticed that the edits are not saved flawlessly the way they have to be saved.
Now, to solve this issue, the brand has started working on a fix with the upcoming software update of the device.
This issue is quite distracting and creates inconvenience while editing; however, it doesn’t seem like a major one because it only applies to photos and images transferred through Smart Switch. It could be said that this is a niche issue.
To calm down the anxiety of users who are facing this issue, a moderator on Samsung’s Korean community forum has stated that the giant will include the fix in a software update.
However, the moderator has yet to specify when this update will be released, but it can be assumed it will be available sometime in July.
Samsung already has a big plan for July; it will introduce One UI 6.1.1 exclusively on the latest foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6. But later, it will bring the update to the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+, and Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Samsung has already started One UI 6.1.1 internal testing for the Galaxy S24. It will be interesting to see what new novelties the latest One UI 6.1.1 update will bring and whether it will include the fix for this issue with it or if the brand will release another issue.
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