SDV, Memory, and Evolving Semiconductor Partnerships in the Auto Industry
The recent back-to-back strategic agreement between Micron Technology and two OEMs (Ford & General Motors) is a key event, relative to a recent LinkedIn Live SDV Coffee Talk focusing on evolving SDV partnerships between the auto and semiconductor industry, that I participated in along with several industry colleagues from the US and Europe (๐๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐น๐ผ๐: the excerpts from SDV Coffee Talk#21, June 11 – from Dr. Fatih Tekin).
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐๐ถ๐ป ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น๐ make just one more indicator that memory planning is becoming a key pillar of the SDV architecture, as critical as the other underlying hardware foundations (i.e., compute platform, networking, sensing), and needs to be managed much more strategically, rather than as a piecemeal sourcing decision. (๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ: Press release at ๐๐ฏ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด.๐ฎ๐ช๐ค๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ.๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ, July 6, 2026)
๐ I am not a HW expert, far from it actually. But it does not take much to understand that data management (and the underlying memory infrastructure for storage, read/write, and code execution) is of growing importance in a software-defined vehicle and its HPC, as they interact with the cloud, run a myriad of sensing/perception alogorithms, event recorders, AI assistants, OTA updates, onboard LLMs, and infotainment applications.
๐ ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ฐ๐น๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ป ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ผ๐ฝ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐:
๐ฅ If the last generations of autos was primarily embedded CPU-centric, the decoupled HW and SW framework of the new AI-enabled SDV is ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ต๐ฆ-๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ช๐ค๐ด-๐๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ centric.
๐ฅ We are likely to see more collaborations and deals of this nature that will expand the compute chip partnerships already in place in the industry, such as Nvidia (Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, JLR etc.), Qualcomm (GM, Ford, and others), Arm (Toyota).
๐ฅ An unavoidable fact is that AI boom has created unprecedented competition for memory capacity, with huge stakes from data centers, cloud providers, consumer electronics, and now, the automotive industryโs softwarization initiatives. It will be interesting to see how these industries fight with each other to lock-in their respective needs.
๐ฅ Reliability of memory is becoming a huge quality issue (e.g., flash memory chip wear out in Tesla in older Model S/X, caused by excessive data logging, causing touchscreen issues)
๐๐ป๐ฑ, ๐ณ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ …
๐ฅ The internal organizations of OEMs are likely to see a tighter interaction and possible reorganization between engineering, purchasing, and quality as OEMs strike new collaborations with the semiconductor industry in general and the memory industry in particular.
Brian Carlson, Florian Rohde, Markus Oertel
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