韩媒综述称三星代工泰勒厂未投产即"满产"、2nm良率升至80%区间并靠特斯拉AI5/博通/Arm订单反攻台积电

Samsung Foundry Launches Its Counterattack: "Full Capacity" Before Full Operation Even Begins

Samsung Electronics' foundry division is mounting a major counteroffensive in the global foundry market dominated by Taiwan's TSMC, riding on large orders from US big tech companies such as Tesla and Broadcom. The Taylor foundry fab in Texas, which is set to begin pilot operation as early as the end of this month, has already reached "full capacity" with its planned production volume fully booked, and it has been confirmed that the company is also pushing ahead with the introduction of equipment from domestic suppliers for the second fab, which breaks ground at the end of the year.

The move is seen as a decisive bet to secure mass production capabilities on par with TSMC in the 2nm node, the cutting edge process that will determine leadership in the global foundry market next year, and to capture big tech's demand to move away from TSMC.

According to the semiconductor industry on the 8th, Samsung's Taylor fab in the US has effectively reached full capacity before even starting operation, as 2nm orders keep coming in, including Tesla's next generation AI chip "AI5," Broadcom's next generation communications chip, and an AI chip for smart devices from the UK's Arm. The 2nm yield , which stood at around 60% earlier this year, is reported to have recently reached the 80% range, a level that makes mass production possible, helped by the stabilization of yields on existing advanced nodes such as 4nm and 5nm.

The Taylor fab, which Samsung has built since 2022 with an investment of $37 billion (about 52 trillion won), will go through pilot operation early next month and begin volume production next year. Its initial production capacity is 50,000 wafer inputs per month, close to the level of Taiwan's TSMC (80,000). Samsung previously dispatched process, equipment, and yield personnel to the Taylor fab in June and began equipment installation in July.

With the Taylor fab, the core base of Samsung Foundry, entering full capacity, the earnings of the foundry business, long the "sore spot" of the Device Solutions (DS) division, are also rising quickly. At its recent earnings call, Samsung projected that its 2nm order volume this year would more than double from last year. Nvidia's inference only chip "Groq 3" also entered mass production last month. Built on the 4nm process, Groq 3 is a rack scale system that bundles 256 language processing units (LPUs) and is tasked with expanding the inference performance of the next generation AI platform "Vera Rubin." Samsung's recent price increase of up to 15% on its 4nm foundry services has also contributed to the improvement in earnings.

Preparations for the second Taylor fab, which breaks ground at the end of this year with mass production targeted for 2030, are also accelerating. Samsung is reported to have recently asked major suppliers to obtain safety certification in advance for the chip production equipment to be installed in the second fab. Some suppliers are also said to be pushing plans to dispatch dozens of personnel on site for the construction of the second Taylor fab.

The back and forth battle for leadership is heating up as well. In the US, Intel issued $20 billion in new shares last month and is expanding investment in its 2nm class "18A" process and next generation 1.4nm class "14A." Rapidus, the symbol of Japan's semiconductor revival, also completed its 2nm foundry fab in Hokkaido last month and has entered the pilot wafer input stage.