The mobility trade is rising as a brand new money cow for Samsung Group, with its associates taking proactive approaches to provide chips, batteries, shows and different electrical or digital elements for international carmakers.
In accordance with trade officers on Tuesday, Samsung Electronics Govt Chairman Lee Jae-yong is about to have a gathering with Mercedes-Benz Group Chairman Ola Kallenius in the course of the latter’s go to to Seoul for a Mercedes-Benz convention on Friday.
Lee is predicted to be accompanied by Samsung SDI CEO Choi Joo-sun, Samsung Show CEO Yi Chung and different executives of key Samsung associates, implying that the assembly will seemingly cowl a broader vary of cooperation between the Korean conglomerate and the German auto large over chips, batteries, shows and different auto elements.
Their partnership has been largely centered on Harman, a Samsung Electronics subsidiary that has been supplying premium automotive audio programs and the Mercedes-Benz Consumer Expertise infotainment system.
Whereas Samsung Electronics provides the Mercedes-Benz digital key by Samsung Pockets and Samsung Show supplies OLED panels for the automaker’s Maybach lineup, their partnerships have but to develop into full-scale collaboration in core element areas.
In opposition to this backdrop, Samsung SDI’s presence within the assembly is gaining consideration. Mercedes-Benz’s electrical automobiles (EVs) have maintained a bigger reliance on Chinese language batteries, however the automaker is in search of to diversify its provide channels. Consequently, the Lee-Kallenius assembly could possibly be a possibility for Samsung SDI to affix Mercedes-Benz’s provide chain.
Samsung Electronics can also be anticipated to leverage the assembly as an opportunity to develop its shopper base for chips for superior automobiles.
Samsung Electronics has expanded its buyer base by supplying its Exynos Auto collection automotive chips to Hyundai Motor, following earlier offers with Audi and Volkswagen. In July, the corporate secured an enormous $16.54 billion chip provide contract with Tesla and plans to supply the AI6 semiconductors from its fab in Texas.
Mercedes-Benz is now making efforts to safe high-performance semiconductors for its personal working system, and Samsung foundry’s 3-nanometer class fabrication course of is without doubt one of the seemingly choices for producing the carmaker’s chips.
Samsung Electronics Govt Chairman Lee Jae-yong, heart, inspects manufacturing tools for multilayer ceramic capacitors throughout his go to to a Samsung Electro-Mechanics plant in Calamba, Philippines, Oct. 6, 2024 (native time). Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
If realized, Samsung Group’s partnerships with Mercedes-Benz would mark the most recent end result of Lee’s push into the automotive electronics enterprise.
Since taking the management of the group, Lee’s first main deal underneath his watch was the 2016 acquisition of Harman, which has develop into one among Samsung Electronics’ main income sources. Within the third quarter of this 12 months, Harman posted 4 trillion received ($2.73 billion) in gross sales and 400 billion received in working revenue, representing year-on-year will increase of 13.3 % and 11.1 %, respectively.
Lee additionally steadily inspects Samsung Electro-Mechanics automotive multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) crops, together with visits to the Busan plant in 2020 and the Calamba, Philippines, plant final 12 months.
In March, Lee additionally visited BYD’s headquarters in Shenzhen and Xiaomi’s EV manufacturing facility in Beijing to discover potential collaboration alternatives in automotive electronics with Samsung associates.
Lee is rising his engagement with the mobility trade as a result of the sector’s future aligns carefully with Samsung Group’s core companies in electronics and electrical parts.
Whereas inside combustion engine automobiles sometimes use 200 to 300 semiconductors, electrical automobiles are anticipated to require 500 to 1,000, and autonomous automobiles greater than 2,000. Every electrical automobile additionally makes use of between 20,000 and 30,000 MLCCs.
“Samsung Electronics and its associates are demonstrating robust competitiveness in automotive semiconductors and parts, in keeping with the continuing digitization and electrification traits within the mobility trade,” an trade official mentioned.
“As confirmed in Harman’s earnings trajectory, mobility options are not an extra enterprise for Samsung, however stand because the group’s core enterprise area.”
