By Samsung Electronics unveiled its strategy to expand its chip manufacturing business and compete with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the current market leader. While Samsung is widely recognized for its smartphones, its semiconductor division is a significant source of profit, specializing in memory chips used in data centers and laptops.
In addition to memory chips, Samsung operates a chip manufacturing business called a foundry, which produces semiconductors for companies like Qualcomm that design their own chips. Earlier this year, Samsung announced plans to develop 2-nanometer chips by 2025. Now, the company has provided a more detailed roadmap, revealing that mass production of the 2-nm process will begin in 2025 for mobile applications. It will then expand to high-performance computing in 2026 and automotive applications in 2027.
The nanometer measurement refers to the size of individual transistors on a chip, with smaller transistors allowing for more densely packed semiconductors. Reducing the nanometer size leads to more powerful and efficient chips. For comparison, Apple’s latest iPhone processor is manufactured using a 5-nm process. Samsung anticipates the growing demand for advanced chips in smartphones and is preparing for this trend by 2025.
Samsung aims to capitalize on the growth of high-performance computing, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) applications used in data centers. Companies like Nvidia, a leader in AI chips, rely on foundries such as TSMC for semiconductor manufacturing. Samsung’s foundry currently lags behind TSMC, which accounted for 59% of global semiconductor foundry revenue in the first quarter of the year, while Samsung held a 13% share, according to Counterpoint Research.
To catch up, Samsung plans to increase its manufacturing capacity and focus on high-growth areas in the chip market. The company confirmed that its 1.4-nm process will proceed as scheduled in 2027. Additionally, Samsung is expanding its chip manufacturing capacity by establishing new production lines in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and Taylor, Texas, as previously announced.
