Samsung Foundry Business Re-surges with Major AI Chip Orders and Stable Yields
Samsung is now undergoing a turnaround in its foundry business, with the memory business also finalizing its recovery. With steady improvements in terms of yield rates from manufacturing, the firm has managed to secure some new contracts with its rival technology companies. It indicates a beginning of competitiveness in the increasingly global semiconductor market.
Furthering the New Deal with Chavolite Scalable Intelligence
Industry sources have confirmed on December 7 that Samsung Foundry has signed a contract to manufacture an Optical Processing Unit chip for the U.S.-based AI startup, Chavolite Scalable Intelligence. The process will be done with a 4nm process manufactured by Samsung. OPU is a next-gen AI semiconductor like the central processor unit and graphics processing unit and memory structures in one chip.
More than $1 billion are estimated to be collected in pre-orders this week. This indicates a shift of fortune for Samsung, which, until now, was facing some challenges in yielding a workable 4nm front-end process. Recent data indicate that the yields are stabilizing between 60% and 70% at a level good enough to regain client confidence. This was preceded by some success in October where Samsung received orders for Tesla's AI5 autonomous driving chip.
Future Outlook: HBM4 and Exynos 2600
The foundry's turnaround is expected to gain more traction next year with the manufacture of HBM4 6th-generation high-bandwidth memory. Using the 4nm process to fabricate the base die of HBM4 will greatly synergize Samsung Foundry with the Memory Business Unit.
In addition, Samsung has also prepared for the exclusive production of its own mobile application processor, the Exynos 2600, which is expected to be included in the upcoming Galaxy S26 smartphone. This would further cement the production pipeline of the foundry.
