Grab wafer foundry orders, Samsung threw to expand 4nm

August 19, 2022

Core tip: Samsung has attacked the advanced wafer foundry process. After announcing that 3nm leads the industry in mass production at the end of June, 4nm is expanding its production with a significant increase in yield. It is expected that in the fourth quarter of this year, 2 10,000 pieces of production capacity, and plans to invest about 5 trillion won (about NT$114 billion) in 4 nanometers, competing with TSMC, and trying to grab more Qualcomm, Supermicro, NVIDIA and other big companies from TSMC Factory foundry orders.
Samsung has attacked the advanced wafer foundry process. Following the announcement at the end of June that 3 nanometers lead the industry in mass production, 4 nanometers are expanding production with a significant increase in yield. It is expected to add 20,000 wafers of production capacity per month in the fourth quarter of this year. , and plans to invest about 5 trillion won (about NT$114 billion) in 4 nanometers, to compete with TSMC, and to grab more wafers from major manufacturers such as Qualcomm, Supermicro, and NVIDIA from TSMC OEM order.

For related news, Samsung said it could not confirm the increase in production and investment. TSMC also did not respond to relevant competitor messages yesterday (17).

South Korean media infostockdaily reported that the 4-nanometer production capacity that exclusively controls Samsung Electronics' wafer foundry business will be expanded in place. According to infostockdaily, Samsung foundry’s 4-nanometer process has increased to nearly 60% of the yield rate, and it has decided to expand production as customer demand increases. With related investments, Samsung’s foundry’s investment in 4-nanometer will reach about 5 trillion won. (equivalent to about NT$114 billion).

The industry pointed out that in the past, about 60% of Samsung Group's wafer foundry production capacity provided its own chip production, and the rest took out outsourced orders. , in order to improve the profitability of the semiconductor business under the headwind of the memory market. Research institutions estimate that Samsung's advanced manufacturing capacity is still only about one-fifth of TSMC's capacity.

While Samsung is actively expanding its advanced wafer foundry process, it also integrates the group's resources and expands its advantages in receiving orders. Its subsidiaries, Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electro-Mechanics, actively integrate complete advanced packaging, aiming at orders for ultra-micro high-speed computing chips, another major customer of TSMC.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics recently issued a press release stating that in the second half of this year, the growth momentum will be mass-produced in South Korea's first FCBGA carrier board for servers (commonly known as ABF carrier board), which will be used in servers, Netcom and vehicle field.

Samsung Electronics has publicly stated that the capital expenditure in the second quarter will be concentrated on the infrastructure of the P3 plant in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and the process upgrades of Hwaseong, Pyeongtaek, and the Xi’an plant in the mainland, while the investment in wafer foundry will focus on improving advanced processes below 5 nanometers production capacity.

According to Samsung's plan, the new P3 plant in Pyeongtaek plans to enter the plant from May to July, which is about a month earlier than the original. The capacity of storage-type flash servers (NAND Flash) will be opened first, and the 3-nanometer wafer generation will be launched in the follow-up plan. industrial capacity.