Samsung is the world’s most significant maker of memory chips.
Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Visuals
Samsung Electronics on Wednesday laid out its roadmap to expand its chip production business enterprise, such as leading-edge semiconductors, as it appears to be like to capture up with chief TSMC.
Probably very best recognised for its smartphones, the South Korean technology organization has a big semiconductor company that is its major revenue driver. It tends to make memory chips that go into facts facilities and laptops.
But Samsung also has a chip producing small business identified as a foundry, which produces semiconductors for other businesses that structure chips, this sort of as Qualcomm.
Before this year, Samsung mentioned it would commence building chips with a 2 nanometer approach in 2025. The company has now specified a extra specific roadmap, saying it will begin mass production of the 2nm approach for cellular programs in 2025, then develop to significant-performance computing in 2026 and to automotive in 2027.
The nanometer figure refers to the dimension of each individual transistor on a chip. The scaled-down the transistor, the more of them can be packed onto a single semiconductor. Commonly, a reduction in nanometer size can produce additional highly effective and effective chips.
For reference, Apple’s most up-to-date Apple iphone processor is produced applying a 5nm method. Samsung anticipates that smartphones will call for additional sophisticated chips going ahead and is getting ready for that in 2025.
Higher-overall performance computing refers to chips for knowledge facilities to prepare and deploy synthetic intelligence programs, as Samsung appears to be to capitalize on the development of the technological know-how, partly spurred by the level of popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Nvidia, a market place chief in AI chips, relies on foundries like TSMC to manufacture its semiconductors.
Samsung’s foundry lags Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s most important contract maker, by some distance. In the to start with quarter of the yr, TSMC accounted for 59% of international semiconductor foundry income, versus 13% for Samsung, in accordance to Counterpoint Study.
Samsung is now searching to enjoy capture up by upping its capability and laying a roadmap out for superior-growth areas in the chip sector.
The firm reiterated that its 1.4nm method will begin in 2027 as prepared.
Samsung also explained it is continuing to increase its chip producing capability, with new manufacturing strains in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and Taylor, Texas, which Samsung has earlier declared.