Samsung's 4-Nanometer Chip Capacity Nears Full Use as Orders Rise

Samsung Electronics' 4-nanometer chipmaking capacity is nearing full use as orders rise, giving its foundry business more work while it seeks additional customers for its 5-nanometer process.

The 4-nanometer process is used for smartphone processors, artificial intelligence chips and high-performance computing chips. Both the 4- and 5-nanometer processes can serve some AI inference chips and application-specific integrated circuits at lower manufacturing cost than the most advanced processes.

Samsung is seeking to improve foundry earnings through higher use of its 4-nanometer capacity. Its effort to win 5-nanometer customers is separate from the rise in 4-nanometer orders.

The company is also discussing 2-nanometer production contracts with major technology companies, though some talks are taking longer than initially expected. Samsung considers the process central to the next phase of its foundry business and plans to use the gate-all-around transistor structure it introduced at 3 nanometers to improve performance and power efficiency.

Before 2-nanometer chips can enter mass production, yields, power efficiency, design assets and the ability to manufacture reliably at scale require verification. That work can extend the time between a contract and mass production.