Hyundai Motor chairman visits Intel, seeking stable supply of chips

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun toured Intel Corp.’s Leixlip Campus in County Kildare, Ireland last week to check out the latest technology trends in automotive chips and the reshaping of global supply chains.   

The campus is Intel’s home to a semiconductor wafer fabrication facility and has become a key location for 14-nanometer process technology. The South Korean automotive giant’s chairman visited the facilities on July 7, Hyundai said on Sunday.

Chung met with Ann-Marie Holmes, Intel’s vice president of manufacturing, supply chain & operations group, and toured the advanced manufacturing facility Fab 24.

Fab 24 manufactures central processing units (CPUs) for Hyundai Motor Group’s fifth-generation standard infotainment system, which delivers a combination of information and entertainment services in vehicles.

The Ireland-based facility mass-produces CPUs to support the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) installed in Hyundai Motor Co.’s G90, a flagship sedan under the premium sub-brand Genesis, and Kia Corp.’s electric sports utility vehicle EV9.

Fab 24 specializes in 14-nm fin field-effect translator (FinFET) technology, which is used for semiconductor device fabrication with enhanced electrostatic control and faster information processing.

Chung also toured Intel’s Remote Operations Center (ROC) to learn about its chipmaking and supply chain management process and had talks with some executives of the US company on global semiconductor industry trends.

The auto giant is striving to secure in-house chipmaking technologies and a stable semiconductor supply chain.

It merged its car parts unit Hyundai Mobis Co. and the chip division of Hyundai Otron, which later became mobility software firm Hyundai Autoever Corp., in 2021. The group also invested an undisclosed amount of capital in local fabless startup BOS Semiconductors last year. 

Hyundai Motor Group will pursue a “software-centered transition,” Chung said during a ceremony-cum-town hall meeting to mark the new year in January.

He said that 200-300 semiconductor chips are needed in current car models, but the number will increase to more than 2,000 in self-driving cars. The group shouldn’t be complacent as a carmaker and must be more meticulous than an electronics company in terms of manufacturing, Chung added at the time.

Write to Nan-Sae Bin at binthere@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.