businesskorea.co.kr, Jun. 09, 2025 –
In the first quarter of this year, the gap between Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s leading foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) company, and Samsung Electronics slightly widened in the foundry market. China’s SMIC saw both its market share and revenue increase compared to the previous quarter, narrowing the market share gap between Samsung Electronics and SMIC to just 1.7 percentage points.
According to market research firm TrendForce on June 9, the total revenue of the world’s top 10 foundry companies in the first quarter of this year was $36.403 billion, a 5.4% decrease compared to the previous quarter ($38.482 billion). TrendForce stated, “Urgent orders from customers just before the deadline for mutual tariff exemptions in the United States and the continued effects of last year’s consumer subsidy program in China partially offset the typical seasonal decline.”
The gap between Samsung Electronics and industry leader TSMC has further widened. TSMC’s market share in the foundry market for the first quarter of this year increased by 0.5 percentage points from the previous quarter to 67.6%. In contrast, Samsung Electronics’ share dropped by 0.4 percentage points from 8.1% to 7.7% during the same period. As a result, the gap between the two companies expanded from 59 percentage points in the fourth quarter of last year to 59.9 percentage points in the first quarter of this year.
TrendForce explained, “In TSMC’s case, while wafer shipments related to smartphones decreased due to seasonal factors, strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) high-performance computing (HPC) and urgent orders to avoid tariffs limited the first quarter revenue decline to 5% compared to the previous quarter, recording $25.5 billion.” They added, “Samsung’s foundry business saw limited benefits from Chinese subsidies and faced U.S. export restrictions on advanced processes, resulting in a revenue of $2.89 billion, an 11.3% decrease from the previous quarter.”
China’s SMIC, ranked third in the industry, saw increases in both revenue and market share, posing a threat to Samsung Electronics. TrendForce explained that SMIC offset the decline in average selling price (ASP) through active early inventory securing in response to U.S. tariffs and Chinese subsidies. As a result, SMIC’s revenue in the first quarter of this year increased by 1.8% from the previous quarter to $2.25 billion, and its market share rose by 0.5 percentage points to 6%. The gap between Samsung Electronics and SMIC narrowed from 2.6 percentage points to 1.7 percentage points during the same period.