Samsung's only competitor in the semiconductor chip manufacturing space is TSMC. The Taiwanese company has a much higher market share than Samsung Foundry and has orders from all the big-name brands, including AMD, Apple, MediaTek, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. On the other hand, Samsung is losing customers, but it has a silver lining right now.
TSMC could charge 20%-30% higher for its 4nm and 5nm chips made in the US
TSMC will soon start making semiconductor chips at its first chip plant in the US. However, the N4 (4nm) and N5 (5nm) semiconductor chips made at this plant will reportedly cost 30% higher than those made in its home country Taiwan. TSMC has already started discussing chip manufacturing orders and negotiating its new pricing with its clients. Its chip plant in the US is expected to churn out chips sometime in 2024.
TSMC also has a chip fabrication plant in Kumamoto, Japan, and it will make 12nm, 16nm, 22nm, and 28nm chips there. According to some reports, chips made at TSMC's Japan plant will be 10%-15% costlier. Looking at all these reports, it is possibly a good thing for Samsung Foundry as it can offer competing chip contracts at lower pricing than TSMC and may be able to steal some clients from TSMC.
And it is good news for Samsung Foundry
It was recently reported that Samsung Foundry may have received orders from AMD and Google to produce 4nm chips. AMD's next-generation CPU and GPU products, as well as Google Tensor G3, could be made using Samsung's improved 4nm process with much better power efficiency and performance. So, there finally seems to be some good news for the South Korean firm in the chip manufacturing space.
