Samsung Electronics, along with Taiwan’s TSMC and America’s Intel, is accelerating the competition to introduce advanced 2-nm process technologies in a bid to take the lead in the global foundry market. Fueling this race among the three companies is Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the developer of the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT. These companies are vying to become Altman’s foundry partners by declaring their independence in AI semiconductor technology and raising an investment of 930 trillion won.
The focus is on whether Samsung Electronics, which ranks second in the global foundry market, will overtake TSMC to claim the top spot in the 2-nm competition, or whether Intel, having first received the next-generation lithography equipment called “High-NA” Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) from Dutch company ASML, will emerge as a new powerhouse.
According to market research firm Omdia on Feb. 14, the global foundry market is expected to reach US$126.4 billion this year, with an average annual growth of 13.8% from last year to 2026, reaching US$153.83 billion. This rapid growth is anticipated to be driven by state-of-the-art processes below 5 nm. Sales of processes below 5 nm, which accounted for 24.8% of total sales last year, are expected to surge to 41.2% by 2026.
Samsung Electronics is leading in the development of 3-nm and 2-nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) technology and is planning to expand its business using advanced process technology. GAA technology, which surrounds three sides of the channel, increases the gate area compared to the traditional FinFET structure, overcoming the performance degradation of transistors due to process miniaturization and enhancing data processing speed and power efficiency.
Samsung is continuing to stabilize mass production of the 3-nm GAA process and accelerate the development of the 2-nm process. TSMC plans to introduce GAA technology for its 2-nm process for the first time. There is speculation in the industry that Samsung, having utilized GAA technology earlier than TSMC, might gain an upper hand in the 2-nm competition.
Intel is set to host a foundry forum on Feb. 22 where it will announce the detailed direction of its business with Sam Altman and Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, also expected to attend. Intel plans to start production of its 20 angstrom (A) process, which is based on GAA technology and equivalent to the 2-nm node, in the first half of this year. Intel received ASML’s next-generation lithography equipment last year and plans to apply it to the 2-nm process, producing its central processing unit (CPU) products using the 20 A process and providing the 18 A process to foundries for mass production in 2025. However, there are prevalent industry predictions that Intel may face challenges in adhering to its schedule due to the initial version of the next-generation lithography equipment.