SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics has recruited two artificial intelligence specialists to accelerate the use of AI in semiconductor research and manufacturing, as its intensifying rivalry with SK hynix expands beyond advanced memory chips into how those chips are designed and produced.
Samsung has hired Seoul National University professor Bohyung Han, a specialist in deep learning and computer vision, as a Fellow to lead the development of AI models tailored to semiconductor research and development, according to information provided by the company.
Tairin Hahn, formerly a senior engineering manager at Meta, has joined as an executive vice president and will oversee the development of "AI-ready data," or datasets structured for direct use by AI systems.
The appointments come as Samsung seeks to apply AI more extensively across chip design, process engineering and manufacturing, areas where increasingly complex semiconductor development is generating vast amounts of data and placing greater demands on engineering productivity.
Samsung has already laid out plans to turn its manufacturing operations into AI-driven factories by 2030, using AI agents and digital twins across production, quality control and logistics. In its semiconductor operations, the company has also recreated its Pyeongtaek fab as a digital twin using Nvidia's Omniverse platform.
Rival SK hynix is pursuing a similar transformation. The HBM market leader is targeting autonomous semiconductor manufacturing by 2030 and has expanded its partnership with Nvidia to use AI and digital twins in chip design and production.
The parallel push suggests that competition between South Korea's two memory giants is increasingly extending beyond HBM performance and production capacity into the use of AI to shorten development cycles, improve yields and extract more output from increasingly expensive fabs.
AJP Takeaways:
- Samsung is adding specialized AI talent to semiconductor R&D and manufacturing, hiring Bohyung Han to develop chip-focused AI models and Tairin Hahn to build data infrastructure that those models can readily use.
- The hires fit into Samsung's broader push to turn its manufacturing operations into AI-driven factories by 2030, applying AI across chip design, process engineering and production.
- The move opens another front in Samsung's rivalry with SK hynix, as the two Korean memory giants increasingly compete not only in HBM technology and capacity but also in using AI and digital twins to shorten development cycles and improve manufacturing efficiency.
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