Samsung is the world’s largest maker of reminiscence chips.
Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Samsung Electronics on Wednesday laid out its roadmap to broaden its chip manufacturing business, together with modern semiconductors, because it seems to meet up with chief TSMC.
Perhaps finest recognized for its smartphones, the South Korean know-how agency has an enormous semiconductor business that’s its foremost revenue driver. It makes reminiscence chips that go into information facilities and laptops.
But Samsung additionally has a chip manufacturing business generally known as a foundry, which produces semiconductors for different corporations that design chips, reminiscent of Qualcomm.
Earlier this yr, Samsung stated it might start making chips with a 2 nanometer course of in 2025. The firm has now given a extra detailed roadmap, saying it will start mass manufacturing of the 2nm course of for cell functions in 2025, then broaden to high-performance computing in 2026 and to automotive in 2027.
The nanometer determine refers back to the measurement of every particular person transistor on a chip. The smaller the transistor, the extra of them will be packed onto a single semiconductor. Typically, a discount in nanometer measurement can yield extra highly effective and environment friendly chips.
For reference, Apple’s newest iPhone processor is made utilizing a 5nm course of. Samsung anticipates that smartphones would require extra superior chips shifting ahead and is getting ready for that in 2025.
High-performance computing refers to chips for information facilities to coach and deploy synthetic intelligence functions, as Samsung seems to capitalize on the expansion of the know-how, partly spurred by the recognition of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Nvidia, a market chief in AI chips, depends on foundries like TSMC to fabricate its semiconductors.
Samsung’s foundry lags Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest contract producer, by a ways. In the primary quarter of the yr, TSMC accounted for 59% of world semiconductor foundry income, versus 13% for Samsung, in accordance with Counterpoint Research.
Samsung is now seeking to play catch up by upping its capability and laying a roadmap out for high-growth areas within the chip market.
The firm reiterated that its 1.4nm course of will start in 2027 as deliberate.
Samsung additionally stated it’s persevering with to broaden its chip manufacturing capability, with new manufacturing traces in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and Taylor, Texas, which Samsung has beforehand introduced.
Source: www.cnbc.com