Samsung’s foundry business revenue exceeded $20 billion last year
Not long ago, Samsung announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2023, marking one of the most dismal quarters in the company’s history. In particular, the operating profit amounted to a meager KRW 6.402 trillion, representing a 95% decline year-over-year and hitting its lowest level in 14 years. Samsung’s semiconductor division suffered substantial losses, incurring a deficit of KRW 4.58 trillion in the first quarter of 2023, necessitating a reduction in the production of memory chips.
According to a Naver report, data from market research firm Omdia revealed that Samsung’s foundry services revenue reached $20.832 billion last year, an increase of nearly 80% compared to the $11.667 billion earned in the second year following the establishment of the business division in 2018. Although Samsung has not disclosed specific revenue figures for individual segments such as memory and foundry, Omdia’s data indicates that foundry operations accounted for 28% of the company’s semiconductor revenues.
The financial report for the first quarter of 2023 demonstrates that Samsung’s semiconductor business generated KRW 13.73 trillion in revenue during the quarter, a 49% decrease year-over-year. While the memory business has been lackluster, the global economic downturn and reduced consumer market demand have evidently had a significant impact on foundry operations. Nonetheless, Samsung has recently seen encouraging news, with increased yields for its 3/4nm processes and subsequent upgrades to the second-generation 4LPP and third-generation 4LPP+ in terms of performance, power consumption, and density. These improvements may attract orders from companies such as Qualcomm and AMD, facilitating a rebound for Samsung’s foundry business.
Samsung’s executives have recently declared their ambition to surpass TSMC within five years, believing that the introduction of GAA-based transistor technology in the 3nm process is pivotal and will play an even larger role in the 2nm process. Their goal is to become the world’s leading systems semiconductor provider by 2030.
