The surge in demand for artificial intelligence chips has also benefited Samsung Electronics' wafer foundry business. Currently, the chip production capacity of AI is highly concentrated at TSMC, but an increasing number of customers are seeking to diversify their orders, which helps Samsung Electronics maintain its second-place position in the global wafer foundry market.

Market research firm Counterpoint released data on the 30th, showing that in the second quarter of this year, Samsung Electronics accounted for approximately 4% of the global wafer foundry market, second only to TSMC. The strong demand for the company's 4-nanometer and 5-nanometer processes ( SF4, SF5 ) combined with rising wafer prices supported these results.

However, the gap between Samsung and TSMC remains significant. TSMC reported revenue of $40.2 billion (approximately 54 trillion Korean won) in the second quarter, a year-on-year increase of 34%, accounting for about 42% of the entire foundry market. Counterpoint indicates that Samsung Electronics and Intel are taking on orders from customers seeking alternative suppliers, but in terms of advanced process capacity, yield, and advanced packaging capabilities, both are still unable to replace TSMC.

It is expected that the focus of industry competition will shift from wafer manufacturing to the field of advanced packaging. Counterpoint predicts that the foundry 2.0 market will maintain double-digit growth in the second half of the year, and packaging, substrate, and testing capacities will become key factors in expanding the supply of AI chips.