Samsung Electronics begins production of 3 nanometer chips to attract new foundry customers

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Seoul-Samsung Electronics said Thursday that it has begun mass production of chips with advanced 3 nanometer technology as it seeks new clients to catch its much larger rival TSMC in contract chip manufacturing.

In a statement, Samsung said in a statement that the newly developed first-generation 3 nanometer process reduces power consumption by up to 45%, improves performance by 23% and covers an area of ​​16% compared to traditional 5 nanometer chips. It states that it can be reduced.

The Korean company did not appoint a customer for the latest foundry technology to supply bespoke chips such as mobile processors and high-performance computing chips. Analysts said Samsung itself and Chinese companies are expected to be the first customers.

TSMC is the world’s most advanced foundry chip maker, controlling approximately 54% of the global market for outsourced chip production used by companies such as Apple and Qualcomm that do not have their own semiconductor equipment. doing.

According to data provider TrendForce, Samsung, with a market share of 16.3%, announced an investment plan of 171 trillion won ($ 132 billion) last year to overtake TSMC as the world’s top logic chip maker by 2030.

Siyoung Choi, Head of Foundry Business at Samsung, said:

Foundry business is experiencing high market growth earlier this year as Samsung co-CEO Kyung Ke-hyun is rushing to secure the capacity of automakers to consumer electronics makers to address the global chip shortage. Said to look for new customers in China, where is expected.

Samsung was first produced with 3 nanometer chip production, but TSMC plans to mass produce 2 nanometers in 2025.

Samsung is a market leader in memory chips, but it was difficult to compete because it was spent on front runner TSMC in a more diverse foundry business.

“The non-memory is different and there is too much diversity,” said Kim Yang-jae, an analyst at Daol Investment & Securities.

“There are only two types of memory chips, DRAM and NAND flash. You can focus on one thing to increase efficiency and make a lot of it, but 1000 non-memory chips can’t do that. . “

According to Mirae Asset Daewoo, Samsung’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2017 to 2023 measures how quickly companies are increasing their investment, 7.9 compared to TSMC’s estimated 30.4%. It is estimated to be%.

According to analysts, Samsung’s efforts to compete with industry leaders have been hampered by lower-than-expected yields of older chips over the past year or so. The company said in March that its business was gradually improving.

($ 1 = 1,292.8900 won)

Joyce Lee

Reuters

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