Nurturing Foundry Business
According to industry sources, Samsung Electronics is planning to form an advisory panel in its semiconductor division. The panel is expected to consist of 10 or so members and be organized before the end of this year. The purpose of the panel and its regular meetings is to enhance the foundry business of Samsung Electronics.
The company, which is the largest player in the global memory chip market, recorded the largest sales in the global semiconductor industry in the second quarter of this year. However, its system-on-chip business is considered relatively weak.
Last year, TSMC led the global foundry market by recording a market share of 50.6% in terms of sales. Samsung Electronics’ share was 7.9% during the same period. These days, Samsung Electronics is striving to boost its share in the market by working on 8 nm and 7 nm process technology. The company succeeded in manufacturing chips by using 10 nm process technology for the first time in the industry in October last year.
The global foundry market is expected to show an average annual growth of 7.8% until 2021. In this regard, Samsung Electronics spun off foundry from its system LSI division in May last year and added 11 nm to its foundry process roadmap.