www.businesskorea.co.kr, Aug. 27, 2024 –
In a rapidly evolving semiconductor industry, the competition between leading foundries is intensifying. As of the second quarter, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) continues to dominate the global market with a 62% share, significantly outpacing its closest competitor, Samsung Electronics, which holds a 13% share. This 49% gap underscores the challenges Samsung faces in its ambitious quest to become the global leader in the system semiconductor sector by 2030. On June 12, Choi Si-young, head of Samsung Electronics' foundry business, delivered a keynote speech at the "Samsung Foundry Forum 2024" held in Silicon Valley, USA, reiterating Samsung's commitment to its 'Semiconductor Vision 2030.'
According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, the global foundry industry revenue in the second quarter grew by 9% compared to the previous quarter and by 23% year-on-year, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI). This growth has further solidified TSMC's position, with the company benefiting from high yield rates and a robust semiconductor post-processing and design ecosystem. Leading fabless companies like Apple, Nvidia, MediaTek, and Qualcomm continue to rely on TSMC for their AI chip production.
TSMC plans to double its production capacity for the packaging technology 'Chip on Wafer on Substrate (CoWoS)' by next year and increase the prices of its 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer process products by up to 8%. These strategic moves are expected to bolster TSMC's market position further.
In contrast, Samsung Electronics is focusing on expanding orders for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) applications. During the second quarter earnings briefing, Samsung executive Song Tae-jung stated, "We plan to continue expanding orders for AI/HPC applications, aiming to increase the number of AI/HPC application customers by four times and sales by more than nine times by 2028 compared to 2023." He also highlighted the company's efforts to improve the maturity of the 2nm process and enhance additional competitiveness to meet the high-performance, low-power, and high-bandwidth requirements of advanced processes.
June saw significant developments in the foundry sector. Samsung Electronics unveiled its foundry strategy, focusing on the "2.4nm process roadmap expansion and turnkey service." The company aims to target global fabless companies directly by advancing processes below 2nm, which are expected to become mainstream in the market.