Samsung might have made many mistakes in the past, but turning down NVIDIA's CEO for a potential long-term collaboration might be one of the more "fatal" ones for business.
Samsung Might Have Made One of Its Biggest Mistakes Turning Down NVIDIA's CEO; A Move That Cost Them Billions
The Korean giant isn't in the best financial position right now. Its semiconductor and HBM businesses are reporting operating losses, mainly because the firm has been unable to capitalize on market trends. While this situation has been brewing for several years now, according to a report by Korean media, Samsung had actually managed to turn down a massive offer by NVIDIA's CEO for a long-term collaboration, which included joint HBM development, partnership with the foundry business, and work on the CUDA ecosystem together. The decision has indeed costed them billions of dollars if not more.
The report claims that NVIDIA knew how important HBM would be in the future, which is why the firm approached the Korean suppliers for development, given that they were famous for DRAM and NAND chips. Since Samsung was the top-tier firm then, Jensen approached them initially, but the leadership rejected his proposals, mainly due to their unoptimistic approach towards HBM. Jensen claims that no one at Samsung was ready for a long-term collaboration with NVIDIA, but if they had known that Team Green would later evolve to be a $4 trillion entity, the Korean giant wouldn't have hesitated.
What happened instead is that NVIDIA approached SK hynix for joint HBM collaboration, and the two of them formed a partnership that is still ongoing. SK Hynix is evolving to be the largest supplier for HBM and memory products, throwing away the decades-long dominance of Samsung over the segment. SK Hynix is the primary supplier for HBM3, HBM3E, and potentially HBM4 for NVIDIA right now, and the firm has reported massive revenue figures over the past few quarters, mainly due to their extensive collaboration with NVIDIA.
Given that Samsung would've agreed to the partnership at that time, they wouldn't be lagging in the HBM and the chip sector, and more importantly, Korean competitors wouldn't have the chance to get ahead of Samsung. The report claims that the chip markets, which TSMC currently monopolizes, would be much more centralized with Samsung's products if the Korean giant agreed to Jensen's proposals, but it was a massive mistake by the administration of that time.
Individuals have made many mistakes predicting NVIDIA's future, and another one was from SoftBank's CEO Masayoshi Son. A few years prior to the AI frenzy, Son sold a massive stake in Team Green that cost him hundreds of billions in stock value. Predicting Team Green and Jensen's speed isn't for everyone, and similarly, no one is certain about how quickly NVIDIA can open up an entirely new frontier in the AI hype.
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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