Samsung's Mega Investment Plan to Compete with TSMC

Find the Latest SoC Solutions
for... Automotive... IoT... Security... Audio... Video

Samsung Electronics has shown its will to invest 300 trillion won (US$231 billion) to become a semiconductor powerhouse in the fabless and foundry sectors, not only in the memory sector.

www.businesskorea.co.kr/, Mar. 17, 2023 – 

On March 16, Samsung Electronics announced that it will invest 300 trillion won over the next 20 years to build a semiconductor cluster in Yongin, Korea, according to industry sources. The company said that it will employ a strategy to widen its gap with others in the memory sector by building the Yongin cluster as the next one after its other Korea-based plants in Giheung, Hwaseong, and Pyeongtaek and to lay the foundation for growing into the number one company in the foundry sector.

Samsung Electronics believes that the construction of a foundry plant in the Yongin cluster will enable the Korean chipmaker to significantly narrow its gap with TSMC in the foundry industry. In June last year, Samsung Electronics became the first company in the world to begin mass-producing 3-nm transistors with a gate all around (GAA) structure.

Despite having such technological superiority, Samsung Electronics has had a hard time catching up with TSMC due to physical limitations caused by a lack of production capacities. Experts say that if the Korean semiconductor giant secures additional production capacity, it will be able to secure strong capabilities in terms of both the quality and quantity of semiconductors, stepping up its pursuit of TSMC.

Many Korean analysts have a lot of anticipation for Samsung Electronics' big investment in terms of solidifying the status of the Korean manufacturing industry with a super-wide gap technology amidst a US-China race for hegemony. They say that it will be possible to establish a world-class semiconductor supply chain in Korea through investments by global materials, parts, and equipment makers as well as Samsung Electronics.

However, in order to make this future strategy pay off big time, Samsung Electronics not only has to make an improvement to yields considered a major chronic problem but also secure big corporate customers such as Apple, which has been generating the driving force behind the growth of its rival TSMC, some analysts say.

click here to read more...

 Back