Samsung foundry department will establish IP alliance

Samsung carried out a high-profile semiconductor expansion plan in 2021, saying that it will invest 151.5 billion US dollars in the construction of fabs in the next ten years, and at the 3nm process node mass-produced last year, it took the lead in introducing a new GAAFET full-surround gate transistor process. Samsung hopes to shorten the distance with the leader TSMC by increasing production capacity and speeding up the research and development of process technology.

According to The Elec, Samsung’s foundry division (Samsung Foundry) is building a system that will allow key partners to own the sales and maintenance rights to their IP. Samsung has done similar things in the past, but the difference this time is that it has a middle-man distribution system for its IP. This approach is very similar to the way TSMC operates, operating in the form of an IP alliance.

TSMC’s goal is to cultivate partners for long-term mutual growth, and this strategy seems to be working very well, because its IP number is more than three times that of Samsung, more than 30,000, while Samsung has about 10,000. The gap between the two sides is not small. IC design houses that design chips but do not have manufacturing facilities are keen to use the existing IP of their foundry partners because it will improve the efficiency of manufacturing.