Expansion
Samsung Electronics is planning to gradually expand the semiconductor foundry business, which has been focused only on mobile application processors (APs) so far. It will expand the customers of its foundry from the existing Apple to many other firms in the graphic chips, smartphone chips, TV set-top boxes, and Internet of Things sectors.
After the weekly Wednesday meeting of Samsung group presidents on Aug. 12, Samsung Electronics Semiconductor Business President Kim Ki-nam said to reporters, “We are open to every business in all sectors,” regarding the foundry business expansion other than mobile APs. However, Kim said, “We cannot talk about our customers,” when he was asked about a contract for new GPU foundries with NVIDIA.
There is a rumor in the industry that Samsung Electronics' System LSI division has been recently competing with TSMC to receive a contract for next-generation GPU foundries from NVIDIA. NVIDIA plans to produce a next-gen GPU, which will be on the market in the second half of next year, using a 10-nano level FinFET process.
Samsung Electronics focuses on securing technology to produce not only GPUs but also TV set-top boxes, Internet of Things, and radio frequency (RF) chips. In particular, the company can diversify its foundry business in various sectors from its existing mobile processor-focused business, and cut down costs when making use of its FD-SOI process, which has been adopted in May last year.
According to data from market research firms, the worldwide semiconductor foundry market rapidly grew from US$40.4 billion (47.78 trillion won) in 2013 to US$44.4 billion (52.51 trillion won) last year. It also expects to see some 5 percent growth this year and next year. There is an overriding prediction that the market will amount to US$52.5 billion (62.09 trillion won) in 2018. The figure exceeds the market growth of memory semiconductors with 2.2 percent and system semiconductors with 4.1 percent.