Samsung Forms AI Semiconductor Alliance with 50 Japanese Companies, Invests ¥348.4 Billion in Yokohama

【TOKYO—Hye-jin Seo, Correspondent】Samsung Electronics has joined forces with about 50 Japanese semiconductor materials and equipment companies to strengthen its competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors. It has opened an advanced packaging research center in Yokohama with an investment of ¥40 billion (approximately ₩348.4 billion), and plans to complete materials evaluations and prototype production in Japan. The strategy is to shorten by up to two months the time previously required to bring materials to Korea and catch up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) and SK hynix in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and foundry competition.
Samsung Electronics held an opening ceremony on the 8th for its advanced semiconductor back-end process research center, APL (Advanced Package Lab), in Minato Mirai, Yokohama. The facility covers approximately 6,600 square meters and includes cleanrooms and analytical equipment designed to replicate actual production-line conditions. Operations began in January this year, with 95 Korean and Japanese researchers developing materials evaluation and mass-production technologies.
The total investment amounts to ¥40 billion. According to The Asahi Shimbun, the Japanese government and Yokohama City will provide ¥22.5 billion (approximately ₩196 billion) of that amount. About 100 people attended the opening ceremony, including former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and representatives of major Japanese partners such as Tokyo Electron and Ibiden.
Jun Young-hyun, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, said, "By combining Korea’s world-class semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities with Japan’s strengths, we will pioneer the future of semiconductors in Yokohama." Former Prime Minister Suga emphasized, "Semiconductor production capacity must not become an obstacle to digitalization."

Samsung Electronics established the research center in Japan because the focus of semiconductor performance competition is shifting from miniaturization to back-end processes. As miniaturization approaches its limits, advanced packaging—which connects multiple chips, including HBM and graphics processing units (GPUs), three-dimensionally—has emerged as a core technology for AI semiconductors. APL conducts broad research into packaging technologies for memory and foundry applications, including 3DIC.
Japanese companies have world-class competitiveness in back-end process materials, including adhesives for stacking HBM and substrates and encapsulants. Sumitomo Bakelite holds about 40% of the encapsulant market, while Resonac and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical lead in substrate materials.
A Samsung Electronics official told The Nikkei, "We rely almost entirely on Japanese companies for key materials used in HBM." According to The Asahi Shimbun, more than half of the advanced packaging materials used by Samsung Electronics are made in Japan.
Previously, sending materials developed in Japan to Korean factories for evaluation took up to two months because of chemical-substance approvals and import-export procedures. Going forward, Samsung can complete evaluations and prototype production in Japan and apply only promising technologies to its mass-production lines in Korea. The Nikkei analyzed that APL will accelerate development in the AI semiconductor market, where even a two-month delay can directly undermine competitiveness.

Samsung Electronics is a memory semiconductor powerhouse, but it is considered to lag behind SK hynix in AI-focused HBM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), the world’s largest foundry, in advanced packaging. A Samsung Electronics official told The Asahi Shimbun, "We want to catch up with TSMC as soon as possible," adding, "We have entered an era in which we must cooperate strongly with Japan, which is geographically close to us."
The Nikkei analyzed that Samsung Electronics is seeking to secure Japan’s world-leading back-end process technologies in order to survive the AI semiconductor competition. The concentration of materials and equipment companies, universities, and research institutions in the Tokyo metropolitan area also gives the company an advantage in securing talent.
Improved Korea-Japan relations also supported the investment. Samsung Electronics considered establishing the research center in 2021, but relations between the two countries had cooled over the issue of wartime forced labor and export controls. After shuttle diplomacy between the two countries’ leaders resumed, Samsung finalized the establishment plan in December 2023.
The Nikkei forecast that "the AI semiconductor competition is shifting from competition among individual companies to competition among cross-border industry alliances," adding that the success or failure of the Korea-Japan semiconductor alliance could also affect national competitiveness.
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