Beating TSMC
Samsung Electronics has secured Groq, a U.S.-based artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor company, as the first customer for its foundry facility located in Taylor, Texas, the United States.
On Aug. 15 (local time), Groq, an AI chip and accelerator specialized fabless semiconductor design company, announced that it will be manufacturing next-generation semiconductors using Samsung Electronics’ upcoming 4-nm process (SF4X) in the US. Groq, a customer of the foundry business, is the first fabless company to publicly disclose its chip production plans at Samsung’s Taylor plant.
Groq was founded in Silicon Valley in the U.S. in 2016 by Jonathan Ross, the current CEO and a former Google engineer. Many of its staff members are recognized for their experience in developing AI semiconductors during their time at Google. Groq specializes in the development of chips and accelerators focused on inference, which is a part of AI that involves learning from existing information.
In the global semiconductor industry, Groq is recognized as an emerging startup along with companies like TensTorrent and Cerebras, poised to take the lead in the future AI semiconductor market. Groq gained recognition for its growth potential in April 2021 when it secured a US$300 million investment from world-renowned venture capital firms like Tiger Global and D1 Capital.
The next-generation AI chips that Groq will manufacture at Samsung Electronics’ facility are reported to offer a significant improvement of up to four times in power efficiency compared to existing products while maintaining excellent performance. Groq plans to build AI systems using these chips, utilizing anywhere from 85,000 to as many as 600,000 units.
Samsung Electronics’ Taylor Foundry plant, which is being constructed with an investment of US$17 billion (around 23 trillion won), is expected to begin chip production in the latter half of next year. Observations suggest that Groq’s AI chips and accelerators are likely to be produced in line with the commencement of operations at this plant. This move is anticipated to fuel competition for customer contracts between Samsung’s Taylor Foundry and TSMC’s foundry plant in Phoenix, Arizona. Companies like Apple and AMD are linked to TSMC, while Tesla and Qualcomm are considered potential customers for Samsung Electronics.