Samsung to invest heavily in chip battle against TSMC
A Samsung Electronics has decided to invest heavily to take TSMC's position as the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phone chips. The South Korean company's idea is to invest US$116 billion exclusively in the manufacture of cutting-edge chips, Exynos line so that, in the future, we no longer depend on products from Media Tek or Qualcomm, for example.
Currently considered the largest chipmaker on the planet, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) could have its reign threatened if Samsung manages to execute its plan successfully.
According to information given to Bloomberg by a senior executive at the company, mass production of 3-nanometer chips, equivalent to TSMC's most advanced, is expected to take place within a maximum of 2 years.
Major partnerships could help Samsung in the fight with TSMC
Winning the chip war against TSMC will not be an easy task for Samsung. Therefore, the South Korean manufacturer has been looking for allies and important partners, already aiming for victory within the established deadline, with a date scheduled for 2022.
Among them, according to the Bloomberg report, is billionaire Jay Y. Lee. According to the company's executive vice president of platform development, Park Jae-hong, the initial tools for developing chips capable of making Samsung beat TSMC "are already in the process of being built."
“To actively respond to market trends and lower the design barrier for competitive system-on-a-chip development, we will continue to innovate our cutting-edge process portfolio while strengthening Samsung’s foundry ecosystem through close collaboration with partners,” he said.
The list of customers interested in using Samsung chips has also been growing steadily since last year, with a 30% increase. Among the new customers who have turned to Samsung chips instead of TSMC are Nvidia and IBM.
Expert sees speed in Samsung's pursuit of TSMC
Rino Choi, a professor of materials science at Inha University, was emphatic in his prediction to Bloomberg: “Samsung is getting closer to catching up with TSMC and looks set to dominate its rival by adopting new technologies for the first time.”
The expert, however, issued a warning to the directors of the South Korean giant. “If Samsung does not increase production as quickly as it has advanced over TMSC at this early stage, it could lose money.”
According to technology analysts, TMSC invests approximately US$17 billion per year to maintain its leadership in the chip market, both in technology and production capacity. Samsung, in turn, spent US$26 billion in 2020, but not all of the investment was directed towards the area. At least not yet.
Street: Bloomberg
