Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun visited Intel's Ireland campus to examine trends in Europe, which is emerging as a new battleground for the automotive semiconductor industry, and to explore supply and demand for automotive semiconductors.

Hyundai Motor Group announced on the 7th that Chairman Chung Eui-sun visited Intel Ireland's Leixlip campus.

On this day, Chairman Chung Eui-sun received a briefing on Intel's global business status and toured the semiconductor production process at Intel's Ireland campus located in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland.

Chairman Chung Eui-sun’s visit is aimed at assessing the restructuring of semiconductor supply chains in major global markets, which are currently in turmoil amidst global competition for dominance, and at continuously exploring multifaceted response scenarios to ensure a smooth supply of automotive semiconductors in the future.

Intel's Ireland campus, which began operations in 1989, serves as a key base in Europe. Intel is currently building an additional advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility, 'Fab34,' at its Ireland campus.

Equipped with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities utilizing EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet), it is expected to emerge as a next-generation production hub in Europe for producing high-performance semiconductors.

Intel is expanding its presence in Europe by expanding production bases and announcing plans to build new factories and research and development centers in key countries, in response to the European Union's recent active efforts to foster the semiconductor industry.

The European Union, home to world-class semiconductor equipment and automotive semiconductor companies, is pursuing a goal of producing 20% of global semiconductor production within the region by investing 43 billion euros in the semiconductor industry by 2030 in response to the US semiconductor industry promotion policy and China's rise in the semiconductor sector.

On this day, Chairman Chung Eui-sun toured the '14nm FinFET (14FF)' process at 'Fab24', guided by Ann-Marie Holmes, Co-Executive Vice President of Intel's Semiconductor Manufacturing Group.

'FinFET' is a system semiconductor technology that creates a three-dimensional structure for semiconductor devices to increase information processing speed and power consumption efficiency. Fab 24 is utilizing this technology to produce and supply 'CPUs (Central Process Units)' installed in Hyundai Motor's standard 5th generation infotainment system and the ADAS of the Genesis G90 and Kia EV9.

At a town hall-style New Year’s gathering held at the Namyang Research Center earlier this year, Chairman Chung Eui-sun emphasized the importance of automotive semiconductors and the internalization of related technologies within the group, stating, “If current automobiles contain about 200 to 300 semiconductor chips, it is expected that 2,000 semiconductor chips will be included in Level 4 autonomous driving.”

After touring Fab 24, Chairman Chung Eui-sun received an explanation of Intel's semiconductor production and supply chain management processes at the 'ROC (Remote Operation Center),' which monitors Intel's fab operations in real-time, 365 days a year. The ROC is known as a key facility that allows one to gauge the trends of the semiconductor industry, directly or indirectly, through the current status of Intel, the world's largest semiconductor company.

As automobiles evolve into 'computers on wheels,' the demand for high-performance automotive semiconductors is increasing explosively every year. High-performance automotive semiconductors are key components that serve as the brains of future mobility, including electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and Purpose Built Vehicles (PBVs). In particular, semiconductor chips capable of rapidly computing and processing large amounts of data are essential for the transition to the SDV (Software Defined Vehicle) system being pursued by Hyundai Motor Group.

Hyundai Motor Group is actively pursuing, at the group level, not only supply chain diversification through multifaceted cooperation with major global semiconductor companies but also the development of high-performance automotive semiconductors for future mobility and the internalization of technological capabilities.

In 2020, the semiconductor business divisions of Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Autron were merged to enhance R&D efficiency. Hyundai Motor Group’s strategy is to internalize core technologies for system and power semiconductors early on to further advance these capabilities, while continuously strengthening its competitiveness in the field of next-generation high-performance semiconductors.

In addition to collaborating with global semiconductor companies, developing automotive semiconductors, and internalizing technological capabilities, Hyundai Motor Group is also investing in semiconductor startups with promising technologies. Last June, it made a follow-up investment of 2 billion won in Bose Semiconductor, an automotive semiconductor startup.

Meanwhile, prior to visiting Intel's Ireland campus on this day, Chairman Chung Eui-sun inspected the sales and production status of Hyundai Motor and Kia in the European market and encouraged the attendees of Hyundai Motor's 'Global Distributors Convention 2023' held in Paris, France.