Première fois en trois ans ! La fonderie Samsung a réalisé un bénéfice en juin, le rendement du processus 4 nm ayant atteint environ 80 %.

Samsung Electronics’ foundry business, after years of losses, is finally showing signs of a turnaround.

According to South Korean semiconductor industry sources, Samsung Electronics’ Foundry Business Division achieved monthly profitability in June this year, marking the first monthly profit since 2023. The continuous expansion of HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) base die shipments, combined with a significant improvement in the yield of its 4nm process, drove this change.

This improving trend has made Samsung optimistic internally about achieving quarterly profitability in the third quarter. At the same time, the company is accelerating its customer acquisition in AI chip foundry—following the Tesla AI6 chip order, Groq chip production and potential collaborations with Meta and Anthropic have emerged, further boosting market expectations for a recovery in Samsung’s foundry business.

Monthly Profitability Achieved; Quarterly Profitability Possible in Q3

Samsung Electronics’ Foundry Business Division achieved monthly profitability in June this year, the first time since 2023. The division had been under pressure for a long time—poor yields in advanced processes, loss of major customers, and low capacity utilization compounded to widen losses. Samsung does not disclose financial data for the foundry division separately, but market estimates put the combined operating loss of foundry and System LSI at around 2.5 trillion won in 2023, expanding to 5.3 trillion won in 2024, and further climbing to about 6 trillion won in 2025.

For the second quarter as a whole, April and May were still in deficit, so it is difficult to confirm a quarterly turnaround yet. However, since the profit in June was not due to one-time settlements but came from sustained improvements in capacity utilization and process yield, Samsung internally believes that the likelihood of achieving quarterly profitability in the third quarter is high.

HBM4 Boosts 4nm Utilization; Yield Improvement Lowers Unit Costs

The key driver of this monthly turnaround lies in the dual improvement of expanded HBM base die shipments and higher 4nm process yields.

The HBM base die is a logic chip located at the bottom of the DRAM stack, responsible for signal interaction with the GPU, and is produced on Samsung’s own foundry lines. Increased HBM production drives up base die wafer starts, thereby raising utilization of advanced process lines. In particular, the HBM4 base die uses the 4nm process, creating a continuous replenishment effect for this line. Samsung Electronics started mass production and commercial shipments of HBM4 globally in February this year, and in May delivered HBM4E 12-layer stack samples to global customers.

The foundry business has a high proportion of fixed costs such as depreciation, labor, and maintenance. An increase in repetitive shipments helps improve equipment utilization and lower unit costs. Meanwhile, according to industry sources, Samsung’s 4nm process yield has now improved to about 80%. Higher yield means more usable chips per wafer start, reducing scrapping and rework costs. From April to May, the initial costs of capacity expansion and process stabilization pressures had not yet dissipated; entering June, the growth in base die volume and the effect of 4nm yield improvement became apparent simultaneously, pushing monthly P&L into positive territory.

Return of Major Customers, AI Chip Supply Chain Diversification Brings New Opportunities

The return to monthly profitability coincides with an improvement in the foundry order structure. Samsung Electronics’ foundry business won the Tesla AI6 chip order last year, and recently took on production of AI inference chips based on the Groq architecture, announced by Nvidia. Additionally, Meta and Anthropic have been mentioned as potential partners for Samsung’s self-developed AI chip foundry, further raising market expectations for Samsung’s foundry recovery.

As AI training and inference demand grow rapidly in tandem, TSMC’s advanced process and advanced packaging capacity are highly saturated. Large tech companies looking to reduce dependence on Nvidia are expanding their own AI chip development while also seeking to break away from sole reliance on TSMC. Against this backdrop, Samsung, with its 2nm advanced process roadmap, HBM base die capacity, and US-based production facilities, is gradually becoming a notable alternative supply chain option.

Despite signs of fundamental improvement, the gap between Samsung’s foundry and TSMC remains vast. According to market research firm TrendForce, in Q1 2025, TSMC held a 72.3% share of the global foundry market, ranking first, while Samsung was second with 6.5%. Compared to the same period last year, TSMC’s share rose 4.7 percentage points from 67.6%, while Samsung’s fell 1.2 percentage points from 7.7% to 6.5%, widening the gap from 59.9 percentage points to 65.8 percentage points.

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