Samsung targets GAIA AI PC chip production as early as 2027

Samsung Electronics is reportedly preparing a return to the PC chip market with GAIA, a 4nm AI accelerator for AI PCs developed by its System LSI Business under the Device Solutions Division. Industry sources cited by Hankyung say prototype chips have been sent to major customers including Lenovo and HP for validation, with mass production targeted as early as 2027.

GAIA is designed for AI workloads rather than traditional PC processing, using an optimized NPU architecture for generative AI tasks. Samsung also plans to pair the chip with processing-in-memory, a next-generation DRAM technology that performs computations directly within memory, a combination observers say could improve AI performance and power efficiency.

The effort would put Samsung into a field already contested by NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Intel, and Huawei. Samsung previously tried to enter the PC chip market 14 years ago with an Exynos application processor used in Samsung Chromebooks in 2012, but left the business roughly two years later after failing to challenge Intel.

Success is expected to depend on securing major customers and building a stable supply chain. The move could help the System LSI Business address structural losses, but it may also complicate Samsung Foundry’s relationships with competitors such as NVIDIA and Qualcomm, which are key foundry customers.