Due to the surge in OEM orders, Samsung plans to outsource the Google TPU I/O back-end design. South Korean chip giant Samsung is considering outsourcing some of the design orders for the Google tensor processing unit (TPU) AI chip it is responsible for.

Due to the surge in OEM orders, Samsung plans to outsource the Google TPU I/O back-end design. South Korean chip giant Samsung is considering outsourcing some of the design orders for the Google tensor processing unit (TPU) AI chip it is responsible for. It is reported that Samsung is the manufacturing partner of the Google TPU chip input/output (I/O) die. Although the computing module of the TPU is expected to be manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the I/O part used to connect the module is said to be responsible for Samsung. Korean media pointed out that in order to ensure that the design of Google can perfectly fit its foundry equipment and processes, Samsung is considering handing over the back-end design work of the chip to an external company. Modern chips typically contain an I/O die along with other modules such as computing and memory. The latter two are mainly responsible for processing data, while the I/O die is responsible for transmitting calculation results to the motherboard. According to the details disclosed so far, the computing module of the Google next-generation TPU chip code-named "Icefish" will be manufactured by TSMC using 1.4nm chip manufacturing technology, while Samsung will be responsible for manufacturing the I/O die. The so-called back-end design refers to the key process of optimizing the I/O die design to meet the chip manufacturer's equipment specifications. The news was first disclosed by South Korea's ETNews. The report pointed out that the large number of orders recently received by Samsung's foundry business was the main reason for this outsourcing decision. In recent months, South Korean media have frequently reported on Samsung's surge in orders, saying that many companies, including artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, have placed orders with it. Sources from ETNews also revealed that some 2-nanometer process orders that cannot be digested due to limited production capacity of TSMC are currently being re-transferred to Samsung. It is reported that many Korean companies such as AD Technology, Gaonchips and Alphachips are among the candidates competing for this back-end design project. In addition to Samsung and TSMC, other potential partners of Google in the TPU project include MediaTek. This Taiwanese company has recently attracted industry attention for its TPU packaging technology. There are reports that MediaTek intends to use Intel's EMIB-T technology for TPU packaging. Analysts believe that whether this technology can ultimately be adopted will largely depend on its packaging yield. However, there are different opinions in the industry regarding these cooperation rumors. Some investment banks and other institutions believe that reports about Intel and Google’s cooperation in TPU are highly speculative. JPMorgan Chase has made a completely different prediction. The agency claims that TSMC will not only use the N2 process to manufacture computing dies, but will also use its N3 manufacturing process series to dominate the I/O die market.