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Samsung may be looking to poach another expert from a rival semiconductor firm. The South Korean tech giant is reportedly in talks with Zhao Guo, co-founder of Chinese fabless semiconductor company Biren Technology, to join its GPU team. It recently hired semiconductor experts who have previously worked with two of its biggest rivals in the industry: Qualcomm and TSMC. Guo has previously worked with Qualcomm too.
Zhao Guo is a senior-level semiconductor talent who has been integral to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon team in the past, particularly in the GPU area. He reportedly led the development of the company’s Adreno GPU architecture for five generations.
Most recently, Guo teamed up with a bunch of like-minded people to found Biren Technology. Founded in 2019, the new company expectedly specializes in GPUs.
Like many other Chinese tech companies, including Huawei and ZTE, Biren Technology was also severely affected by the recent US sanctions. It had to modify its products and make them less powerful to ensure continued business with some of its partners, including the manufacturer SMC.
It Looks like some of the co-founders of the company are now considering leaving for other opportunities. And, Zhao Guo may be headed to Samsung.
Samsung may soon add another expert to its semiconductor talent pool
Samsung hasn’t been as successful in the non-memory semiconductor business as in some other areas. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors have historically performed better than its Exynos solutions. Its chip fabrication process has also been inferior to TSMC’s.
The company tried developing its own custom Mongoose CPU cores but that didn’t work. It is now using stock ARM CPU cores but has teamed up with AMD to bring Radeon graphics to mobile.
Last year’s Exynos 2200 is the only Samsung processor to feature AMD graphics so far (Xclipse 920 GPU). However, the two companies recently extended their partnership, so they are just getting started. In the meantime, the Korean firm is bolstering its semiconductor talent pool with the strategic hiring of industry experts.
Last month, it roped in a veteran semiconductor engineer who worked for TSMC for almost two decades. It is now looking to hire another semiconductor expert.
All of this is coming at a time when Samsung’s quarterly profits have declined a staggering 96% to hit a 14-year low. The company is on its way to registering its first loss from the semiconductor business since 2008. But, despite these difficulties, it doesn’t plan to scale back investments.
It wants to continue the planned investments in the semiconductor business in the coming years. These hirings are likely part of the plans. Hopefully, Samsung will be able to turn the tide soon.
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