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Samsung’s increased chip production prices to affect GPU and SoCs as well
According to the latest information, the South Korean foundry manufacturer Samsung Electronics revealed last week that it will increase foundry prices.
As per the report of Tom’s Hardware and SoyaCincau, that Ben Suh, senior vice president of Samsung’s investor relations department, said at a conference that Samsung’s foundry business is expected to accelerate growth, mainly through the expansion of the Pyeongtaek S5 production line and adjustment of pricing.
In other words, Samsung is planning to increase foundry prices to support the expansion of its S5 factory near Pyeongtaek, South Korea, so that it can get more revenue to support the next round of investment. The industry believes that the rise in Samsung foundry prices may affect the prices of chips such as GPUs, SoCs, and controllers manufactured by Samsung.
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Samsung Electronics plans to spend US$26.3 billion this quarter, of which US$23.75 billion is for semiconductors and US$1.6 billion is for displays. The investment in the foundry business focuses on the expansion of advanced processes, such as 5nm EUV lithography machines, and the launch of 3nm grid ring (GAA) designs.
The S5 factory is Samsung’s most advanced production line at present, which can support 5nm family 5LPP, 4nm 4LPE, and other process processes. In addition, the factory uses a large number of EUV lithography machines, and the cost of expansion is very high. Therefore, Samsung high capital expenditures in recent years, so they hope that customers will pay for it.
As we all know, Samsung uses its latest node technology to produce chips, such as its own Exynos chip, NVIDIA Ampere GPU chip, Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip, and tens of thousands of SoCs.
It is worth mentioning that Samsung is currently the only foundry that has officially confirmed the price increase. TSMC, UMC, SMIC, etc. reported by the media have not been formally confirmed.
Samsung remained the king in the Q2 2024 market, but Apple and Xiaomi are getting closer. IDC market research data shows that Samsung led the worldwide smartphone market in the second quarter of the year and Chinese brands scored rapid growth.
According to IDC, Samsung sold 53.9 million devices in the second quarter. The company occupied an 18.9% market share internationally. The company has slightly improved its sales share up from 53.5 million units in the same period last year.
The data suggests that Apple ranked second in terms of global volume sales. The iPhone maker shipped 45.2 million devices in Q2, 2024. It captured a market share of 15.8%, a modest increase from 44.5 million shipments in the second quarter of last year.
Third comes Xiaomi. The Chinese brand saw massive growth in sales year over year. It had sold 42.3 million smartphones in the second quarter alone. It’s a big jump from 33.2 million units shipped in Q2 2023, becoming a potential threat to Apple and Samsung.
Apart from this, Vivo also recorded significant growth in the global market. The company’s year-over-year growth in Q2 was 21.9%, with sales listing 25.9 million units with a market share of 9.1%. The growth percentage shows that aggressive marketing and boasting competitive specs into devices is paying off.
Samsung, Apple’s game isn’t over…
Last week, Samsung launched its new foldable phones, releasing on July 24, 2024. Apple, on the other hand, is expected to launch new flagship iPhones in September. It means, Samsung will enjoy the third quarter as well. The fourth quarter might be of Apple as iPhone sales would sharply grow in the global market given the new lineup release.
Samsung is now preparing to unveil new FE products later this year, followed by the S25 series in early next year. Chinese brands are expected to debut their latest flagships in the last quarter of this year, while Google Pixel phones are also coming in August.
Samsung today announced provisional sales and profit results for the second quarter. Samsung formally announced the provisional/predicted sales and operating profit, suggesting a massive profit boom in Q2, 2024 given the AI memory semiconductor rise.
In Q2, 2024, Samsung sales provisionally increased by 2.89% and operating profit by 57.34% compared to the previous quarter thanks to AI boom. Besides, the sales climbed by 23.31% and operating profit by 1,452.24% compared to the same period last year.
The company expects sales of 74 trillion won and operating profit of 10.4 trillion won on a consolidated basis. While these results are not final, there won’t be much change in the final result when it comes out. Samsung had a pretty profitable period in the second quarter.
Samsung in Q2
- Consolidated Sales: Approximately 74 trillion Korean won
- Consolidated Operating Profit: Approximately 10.4 trillion Korean won
The Korean tech giant is currently facing yield issues in its second-generation 3nm process. The flagship Exynos processor is unlikely to be commercialized this year. It would lead the Mobile business to face additional burdens due to rising prices of Snapdragon chipsets.
Meanwhile, Samsung is focussing on HBM (high bandwidth memory) semiconductors. HBM is a key player in artificial intelligence servers and data centers. The booming AI market will directly benefit Samsung’s semiconductor business.
Samsung ranked first in market share in the global smartphone market in Q3, 2023. TrendForce report says that Samsung led the global Q3 smartphone market, recording a market share of 19.5%.
Overall production in the third quarter increased by 11.5% compared to the previous quarter to 60.1 million units. During the same period, Apple’s production increased by 17.9% to 49.5 million, thanks to iPhone 15.
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Third place was taken by Xiaomi (13.9%), followed by Oppo (12.6%) and Transion (8.6%). 6th place is Vivo (8%). Meanwhile, global smartphone production reached 308 million units, a 13% increase compared to the previous quarter and a 6.4% increase from the previous year.
Huawei’s re-entry into the flagship smartphone market targeting Apple has had a significant impact in China. Huawei is aiming to expand its high-end flagship series, focusing on the Chinese domestic market next year, so Apple “We plan to attack directly”.
// Source