Korean semiconductor giants lag in global automotive chip race - Korea JoongAng Daily

Korean semiconductor industry is facing significant challenges in the global automotive chip market. Despite having industry leaders like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, Korean companies lag behind ... Read original →

Korean semiconductor leaders' lag in automotive chips reveals a structural overreliance on memory-centric roadmaps. TSMC, leveraging sub-5nm nodes, has embedded itself into NVIDIA’s and Qualcomm’s AI-driven automotive SoC ecosystems, creating a manufacturing-plus-ecosystem moat. In contrast, Samsung and SK Hynix struggle to meet ISO 26262 functional safety requirements beyond 40nm for MCUs and power management ICs. This gap pressures upstream EDA and IP vendors to localize certified design flows in Korea. With U.S. and EU incentives accelerating onshore automotive chip capacity, Seoul must deploy targeted state-backed capital within 18 months and forge vertical pilots with Hyundai Motor to avoid marginalization in the EV supply chain. TSMC is poised to deepen its foothold in Germany and Japan, locking in European OEMs.