Samsung, Tesla Chiefs Convene in Silicon Valley for Potential New Partnership

Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae Yong and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have recently met up in Silicon Valley, and this sparked speculations that a new partnership deal for autonomous driving chips could potentially be signed soon.

The Samsung Electronics chief met Musk at Samsung Semiconductor U.S. R&D Labs late last week. They talked about future collaboration for the advanced industrial business field, such as the production of autonomous driving chips, and this was revealed by the South Korean electronics giant on Sunday, May 14.

According to The Korea Times, this was the very first time that Lee and Musk met up for a private meeting. Their respective companies are actively promoting trades for the development of IT technology for the next generation. They are also jointly working on the development of chips for fully autonomous vehicles.

It was noted that Samsung is slowly boosting its influence in the automotive chip market by securing deals and orders for high-performance semiconductor products from major US-based companies, including Nvidia.

Lee was on a business trip in the United States for almost a month, and he returned to South Korea just last Friday, May 12. It was the Samsung executive chairman's longest business trip since being formally appointed as the company's leader in October 2022.

"The starting point is not important. Bold and persistent challenges determine the outcome," Lee said after his trip. "Let us relay the success DNA we had from semiconductors to the bio sector."

While in the U.S., he also held meetings with other top executives of American tech firms, including Google and Microsoft, for future collaborations in various business fields. With Tesla's Elon Musk, The Korea Herald reported that they already agreed to expand their partnership further, particularly in the chip development for EVs.

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