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Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong met with the head of MediaTek, Taiwan’s leading fabless semiconductor company, earlier this week to discuss partnership, industry sources said Friday. Lee met with Rick Tsai, chief executive officer of MediaTek Inc., in Taiwan on Thursday as part of Samsung’s efforts to bolster its foundry business in response to soaring chip demand from the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, according to the sources. The meeting was also seen as part of Samsung’s efforts to ease concerns among global partners after the world’s largest memory chip maker reached a last-minute agreement with its labor union that averted possible disruptions to the global supply chain. Industry watchers said Samsung and MediaTek may have held detailed discussions on possible partnerships during the high-level meeting. MediaTek currently places orders with TSMC. Fabless firms design semiconductors without owning fabrication facilities, while foundries manufacture chips designed by such companies. Samsung recently secured foundry orders from major global companies such as Tesla and