SEOUL, South Korea: Samsung Electronics and U.S. chip designer Broadcom have expanded their semiconductor partnership with a long-term agreement covering memory chips, contract chip manufacturing and advanced packaging, in a collaboration the companies expect will exceed US$200 billion through 2030.

The memorandum of understanding is expected to strengthen Samsung's position in the fast-growing artificial intelligence semiconductor market as global technology companies increasingly develop custom AI accelerators instead of relying solely on general-purpose graphics processors.

The agreement also represents a significant boost for Samsung's foundry business as it seeks to narrow the gap with industry leader TSMC by attracting major technology customers.

"The expanded collaboration ... reflects Samsung's focus on supporting customers with end-to-end semiconductor technologies across an increasingly diverse range of AI and high-performance computing applications," the company said in a statement.

Over the next five years, Broadcom's expertise in designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), which are chips built for specific tasks, will be combined with Samsung's manufacturing capabilities.

Under the agreement, Broadcom's next-generation communications chips, designed for high-speed data transfer, will be manufactured using Samsung's sub-2-nanometre process technology. The companies will also work together on next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) products.

Securing long-term production commitments from Broadcom, one of the world's leading custom AI chip designers, could help improve utilization at Samsung's advanced manufacturing facilities as competition intensifies to supply AI chips.

The expanded partnership follows Samsung's broader efforts to strengthen its AI semiconductor business by deepening ties with Broadcom amid growing demand for custom AI processors.

Last month, Samsung co-CEO and head of its chip division Jun Young-hyun said he had discussed next-generation foundry cooperation with Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang, including future HBM4E and HBM5 memory products.

Samsung also said this year it expects to secure additional orders for its advanced 2-nanometre foundry process after discussions with major technology companies. Last year, the company won a $16.5 billion contract to manufacture logic chips for electric vehicle maker Tesla.