Samsung Electronics to Supply Chips to Tesla: Report

Samsung Electronics will supply semiconductors to US electric car maker Tesla Motors, South Korea's Electronic Times reported on Friday citing unnamed sources.

Samsung would contract manufacture chips for self-driving features in Tesla vehicles, the paper reported, without putting a value on the order.

The South Korean firm has been trying to build auto-related sales for components such as semiconductors and displays in a push to develop a new growth engine. Samsung in November said it would acquire Harman International Industries for $8 billion in a bid to grow quickly in the automotive market.

Samsung did not immediately comment on the report, while Tesla could not be immediately reached for comment.

In the meanwhile, the US Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with Samsung in its big-money smartphone patent fight with Apple, throwing out an appeals court ruling that the South Korean company had to pay a $399 million penalty to its American rival for copying key iPhone designs.

The 8-0 ruling, written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, held that a patent violator does not always have to fork over its entire profits from the sales of products using stolen designs, if the designs covered only certain components and not the whole thing.

The justices sent the case back to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington to determine how much Samsung must pay. But they did not provide a road map to juries and lower courts on how to navigate similar disputes in the future.

© Thomson Reuters 2016