IBM Expands Partnership with Samsung to Include 7nm Chip Manufacturing

IBM announced an agreement with Samsung to manufacture 7-nanometer (nm) microprocessors for IBM Power Systems, IBM Z and LinuxONE, high-performance computing systems and cloud offerings.

The agreement combines Samsung's semiconductor manufacturing with IBM's CPU designs. This combination is being designed to drive high systems performance, including acceleration, memory and I/O bandwidth, encryption and compression speed, as well as system scaling. It positions IBM and Samsung as strategic partners leading the new era of high-performance computing specifically designed for AI.

"At IBM, our first priority is our clients," said John Acocella, Vice President of Enterprise Systems and Technology Development for IBM Systems. "IBM selected Samsung to build our next generation of microprocessors because they share our level of commitment to the performance, reliability, security, and innovation that will position our clients for continued success on the next generation of our hardware.

The announcement also expands and extends the 15-year strategic process technology R&D partnership between the two companies. That cooperation includes many industry firsts such as the first NanoSheet Device innovation for sub 5nm, the production of the industry's first 7nm test chip and the first High-K Metal Gate foundry manufacturing.

"We are excited to expand our decade-long strategic relationship with IBM with our 7nm EUV process technology," said Ryan Lee, Vice President of Foundry Marketing at Samsung. "This collaboration is an important milestone for Samsung's foundry business as it signifies confidence in Samsung's cutting-edge high performance EUV process technology.