Samsung has raised prices for some of its advanced contract chipmaking by as much as 15 percent for new orders, according to a Reuters report. Two people familiar with the matter said the increases follow a surge in demand for AI chips. That demand is tightening capacity in a business TSMC has long dominated.
The rises took effect in July and centre on Samsung’s 4-nanometre process, known as SF4, the sources said. Customers for SF4 chips in China and the United States saw increases of 10 to 15 percent from the previous month. Customers in Taiwan, TSMC’s home, faced smaller rises of 5 to 10 percent. Prices for Samsung’s 5-nanometre SF5 wafers rose 10 to 15 percent. Its older 8-nanometre work went up by nearly 10 percent.
A foundry makes chips to other companies’ designs. The process node, measured in nanometres, is a rough guide to how advanced it is. Smaller numbers mean newer, denser chips. SF4 is Samsung’s workhorse advanced node, and the sort of process AI chip designers compete for.
Demand from Chinese customers has been especially strong, the sources said. Samsung has not been able to fill every order. It has to serve US customers and hold back some capacity for its own chip production. Chinese customers are among those accepting the steepest rises.
