From Microsoft to Google: Tech giants in Korea compete for memory chip orders, dismissing employees if they can't get the supplies?

As global supply of memory chips such as HBM, DRAM, and LPDDR becomes tight under the AI wave, tech giants like Microsoft and Google are dispatching procurement executives to Korea in hopes of securing capacity from Samsung and SK Hynix. It has even been rumored that Google dismissed a procurement manager after failing to secure supplies. The battle for supply chains has extended from logistics to personnel changes, and the memory procurement war is likely to intensify further.

Tech Giants Stationed in Korea to Secure Memory Supplies, Microsoft Walks Out in Protest After Negotiation Failures

According to Daily Economic News, a Korean media outlet, industry insiders revealed: “Driven by the explosive demand for AI models, the memory orders for many tech giants for next year have already been fully booked.”

To gain early access to memory supply contracts with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, senior procurement executives from major tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Meta are almost all stationed in Korea.

It is understood that the only global suppliers capable of producing high-bandwidth memory (HBM), advanced DRAM (DRAM), and low-power double data rate memory (LPDDR) are SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron.

The report pointed out that Microsoft even walked out in anger during negotiations for a long-term agreement (LTA) with SK Hynix, after Hynix indicated it would be difficult to meet Microsoft’s demands, leaving Microsoft executives visibly furious.

Google Dismisses Procurement Manager Over Failing to Secure HBM

Google’s AI-focused TPU requires large amounts of HBM, with 60% of its supply coming from Samsung. However, as external customer demand for TPU exceeds expectations, Google attempted to place additional orders with SK Hynix and Micron, only to be rejected as “completely impossible.”

In response, Google’s senior management directly dismissed the procurement manager responsible, citing the failure to sign an LTA in advance, which posed potential supply chain risks and highlighted personnel risks stemming from the memory shortage.

(Google and Meta Join Forces to Challenge NVIDIA’s Monopoly; Can TorchTPU Empower TPU to Weaken GPU?)

From Capacity Competition to Personnel Strategy Shift: Tech Giants Move Procurement Centers from Silicon Valley to Asia

To strengthen procurement and supply chain management, tech giants are adjusting their talent deployment, no longer keeping procurement staff at their US headquarters but instead stationing them directly in key semiconductor regions like Korea, Taiwan, or Singapore.

Recently, Google publicly recruited a “Global Memory Commodity Manager (Global Memory Commodity Manager)”, and Meta is also seeking a “Memory Silicon Global Sourcing Manager (Memory Silicon Global Sourcing Manager)”, emphasizing the need for hybrid engineering and procurement skills to directly interface with Samsung, Hynix, and TSMC to compete for capacity.

Is the Memory War Heating Up? Tech Giants Say: As Long As There’s Supply, We’ll Take It

Faced with enormous demand from NVIDIA (NVIDIA), Microsoft, Google, and other giants, industry insiders in South Korea reveal that these tech giants have issued nearly unlimited procurement strategies:

Currently, major tech companies are placing open-ended (Open-ended) orders with the three main memory suppliers, meaning “regardless of price, as long as they can supply, they will accept all.”

He added, “However, the advanced process lines for HBM and other products at Samsung and SK are already operating at full capacity, so fully satisfying their demands physically is difficult.”

It’s clear that in the current AI supply chain war, the battlefield has shifted from GPU to the HBM domain, as no company will hand over the leadership in the next phase of AI competition.

(NVIDIA’s Largest Acquisition Ever: Spends 640 Billion to Acquire Groq Technology and Google TPU Father)

This article, from Microsoft to Google: Tech Giants Stationed in Korea to Fight for Memory Orders, and Dismiss Employees if They Fail to Secure Supplies, originally appeared on Chain News ABMedia.