Samsung's foundry business records over $20 billion in annual sales

A recent analysis found that Samsung Electronics’ Foundry Division first reached the 20-billion-dollar threshold in annual sales since its beginning.

Global tech research firm Omdia on Sunday estimated Samsung's annual sales of foundries as of last year at 20.8 billion dollars or so. Since the related division was launched in 2017, it exceeded the 20-billion-dollar mark in annual sales volume for the first time. The South Korean semiconductor's heavy investment in foundries constantly increased sales from 11.7 billion dollars in 2018 to 13.2 billion dollars in 2020.

Having said that, there is uncertainty about a continuous expansion of sales of foundries this year. Samsung's operating profits for semiconductors ended up with a deficit of 4.58 trillion won in this year's first quarter from January to March. The prolonged economic slowdown and rising stocks in clients’ warehouses are presumed to have affected performance numbers in the memory sector and foundries.

Samsung plans to apply "super gap” technology to chase after the world's No. 1 TSMC of Taiwan. Kyung Kye-hyun, head of the Samsung Electronics Device Solutions Division, said in his special lecture in KAIST last Thursday that it would take five years for Samsung to exceed TSMC while admitting that Samsung currently falls behind the competitor foundry technology-wise.


Teuk-Gyo Koo kootg@donga.com