Samsung's foundry biz to grow 19% on-year in Q4: report

Published : Dec 10, 2019 - 20:01 Updated : Dec 11, 2019 - 08:47

Samsung Electronics is expected to see 19 percent on-year growth in its foundry business in the fourth quarter of the year, a market report showed Tuesday, though the performance will not be enough to narrow the market share gap with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

Samsung's foundry business was projected to log $3.4 billion in revenue in the October-December period, up 19.3 percent from a year earlier, according to market tracker TrendForce.

Samsung Foundry Forum (Samsung Electronics)

Foundry refers to the contract chip manufacturing business for fabless chipmakers, such as US tech behemoths Qualcomm Inc. and Broadcom Corp., that design and sell semiconductors for various types of electronics. Samsung's 5G networking chips and high-resolution CMOS image sensors were expected to boost its revenue, according to TrendForce.

TrendForce added that Samsung's high-end 4G smartphone application processors are forecast to log slower demand growth in the fourth quarter as the market is shifting to 5G smartphones, but the company is expected to make up for the slowdown with its anticipated shipment of Qualcomm's latest 5G system on a chip products.

Samsung was reportedly tapped to manufacture Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765 chips with its 7-nanometer extreme ultraviolet process nodes.

Despite solid sales growth, Samsung's share in the global foundry market was projected to reach 17.8 percent in the fourth quarter, down 0.7 percentage point from a quarter earlier, for the No. 2 spot as its rivals beefed up their presences, TrendForce data showed.

Samsung was followed by US chipmaker GlobalFoundries at 8 percent, and Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. at 6 percent.

TSMC is expected to solidify its top dog status with a 52.7 percent market share in the fourth quarter as its revenue is projected to grow 8.6 percent on-year to $10.2 billion, according to the data.

The Taiwanese firm reportedly had a 50.5 percent share in the July-September period. Samsung has been eager to catch up to TSMC in the foundry segment.

In April, Samsung said it will invest 133 trillion won ($110 billion) by 2030 to expand its non-memory and foundry business, in line with its efforts to diversify its portfolio.

TrendForce projected that the overall revenue of the global foundry market in the fourth quarter will grow 6 percent from the previous quarter following companies' inventory reduction efforts and better-than-expected seasonal demand. (Yonhap)