Samsung Foundry in Talks with Meta on Mass Production of Third Generation MTIA

Samsung Electronics is establishing itself as a key player in the artificial intelligence (AI) chip market on the strength of its foundry (contract chip manufacturing) business. Following Tesla, it has now been confirmed to be expanding its standing as a production base for the custom chips (ASICs) of global big tech firms including Anthropic and Meta, which is expected to move up the timing of its return to profitability. Industry observers estimate that Samsung Foundry's medium to long term order backlog could approach 50 trillion won.
According to industry sources on the 3rd, Meta is pursuing the design and production of a next generation ASIC worth more than 10 trillion won with Samsung Foundry. Meta's proprietary AI accelerator, "MTIA," was produced at TSMC through its first and second generations, but starting with the third generation unveiled this year, Meta has selected Samsung Foundry as its partner. In particular, the third generation MTIA is set to apply Samsung Foundry's most advanced 2 nanometer (nm, one billionth of a meter) process, with mass production planned on the scale of several hundred thousand wafers.
Meta is currently reviewing an entry into the "cloud service" business of leasing AI computing infrastructure to outside companies, and MTIA is expected to serve as the core chip in this effort. With a target of building out a total of 5 GW (gigawatts) of data center capacity by 2030, the company cannot rely on external chips alone. To that end, Meta plans to run an ultra fast development cycle that releases a new generation of chips every six months, moving from the third generation to the fifth generation chip next year.
For this "chip development speed race," Meta is also known to have built a collaboration framework with Samsung Electronics' System LSI division, which specializes in design. Meta operates its own AI chip design organization, but it concluded that its in house talent alone would not be enough to absorb the ultra fast six month development schedule. Meta is working on joint development with Samsung System LSI from the earliest chip architecture design stage.
Anthropic, a U.S. AI company, is also known to be reviewing the development of an ASIC using Samsung Foundry's 2 nanometer process. Analysts see this as part of an "AI infrastructure internalization" strategy aimed at reducing dependence on external chips such as Nvidia GPUs and Google TPUs.
Anthropic is pursuing the construction of roughly 1 GW of its own AI data centers over the long term, with the investment estimated at around 50 billion dollars (about 77 trillion won). The industry projects that about half of the total investment will go toward AI chips, meaning spending on ASICs and memory such as DRAM and NAND flash alone could reach around 25 billion dollars (about 39 trillion won).
Because Samsung Electronics possesses integrated chip capabilities spanning memory, foundry, and packaging, it is regarded as the biggest potential beneficiary of Anthropic's AI chip production. In May, Samsung Electronics participated in Anthropic's 65 billion dollar (about 100 trillion won) Series H funding round, establishing a strategic partnership.
An industry official said, "Starting with the Tesla AI chip order last year, Samsung Foundry's orders for AI server chips are gaining momentum in earnest," adding, "A contract for the contract production of automotive chips is also being pursued with China's largest EV maker BYD, so the order backlog is growing toward the 50 trillion won level, and an operating profit could be possible as early as the fourth quarter of this year."