Key Takeaways
Despite mounting losses, Samsung is moving ahead with the U.S. expansion of its foundry business after opening a new manufacturing campus in Taylor, Texas, earlier this year.
Having already secured clients for the new facility, Samsung is seeking experienced engineers to work on contract manufacturing and sales executives to scout for new customers in Silicon Valley.
First announced in 2021, Samsung’s $17 billion Taylor campus is its second in the U.S.
The new fabrication plant, expected to be fully operational by 2026, will coordinate with the nearby Austin fab to nearly double the company’s U.S. manufacturing capacity.
Last year, the plant secured AI chip startup Groq as its first customer . Existing clients relying on the Austin factory, including IBM, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Tesla, could also see some of their production relocated to Taylor.
To meet the needs of diverse manufacturing projects, Samsung Semiconductor recently posted a job listing for a senior manager of foundry customer engineering. The position entails managing foundry customers’ projects and coordinating between chip designers and internal manufacturing departments.
The company is also hiring sales and business development staff at its San Jose office.
Samsung’s U.S. semiconductor push comes after its chip subsidiary posted net losses in the first half of 2023, its first in 15 years.
While a strong recovery in the consumer electronics market and booming demand from the AI industry have reversed the company’s fortunes in 2024, Samsung continues to fall behind its Taiwanese foundry rival, TSMC.
Since 2014, Samsung’s share of the semiconductor foundry market has stagnated at between 11% and 13%. Meanwhile, TSMC’s has steadily risen from 52% to 62%.
Even in the memory chip market, where Samsung is the biggest player, SK Hynix, and Micron have made crucial inroads in recent years, steadily reducing Samsung’s lead in DRAM and Flash technology.
Despite investing tens of billions of dollars to try and catch up with TSMC’s cutting-edge manufacturing capabilities, reports suggest Samsung still hasn’t nailed the small node processes required for the latest logic chips.
Worse still, unstable 3nm and 4nm yields have driven some clients straight into the arms of rival TSMC.
Highlighting the challenges Samsung’s foundry faces, another group company, Samsung Securities, suggested it could divest from the loss-making contract manufacturing business and list it on the U.S. stock market, Korean media reported in October.
In response to the suggestion, Group Chairman Lee Jae-Yong said the company had no plans to sell any parts of its semiconductor outfit. “We are hungry to grow the business. Not interested in spinning (them) off,” he told Reuters.