Samsung Electronics has raised prices for advanced chipmaking services by up to 15% as surging AI demand fills its foundry capacity, Reuters reported on August 19, citing people familiar with the matter.
Customers in China and the US faced increases of 10% to 15% for Samsung 4-nanometre SF4 process, while Taiwanese customers saw increases of 5% to 10%. Prices for the 5nm process also rose 10% to 15%, and the 8nm process increased by close to 10%. The July price hikes follow earlier notifications Samsung sent to customers in late 2025 about planned increases.
AI Demand Reshapes Foundry Economics
The price increases reflect a broader tightening across the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. TrendForce expects global foundry revenue to increase 24.8% year-over-year to about $218.8 billion in 2026, with AI GPUs and custom processors driving demand for advanced process nodes. The research firm projects AI server shipment growth of nearly 31% this year, up from an earlier estimate of 28%.
Samsung 4nm capacity is being stretched by dual demand: external foundry orders from customers including Qualcomm, and internal production of HBM base dies used in the company high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators. The company plans to increase 4nm HBM base-die sales in the second half of 2026 alongside other logic products.
Market Share Gap With TSMC Remains Wide
Despite the pricing power, Samsung remains a distant second to TSMC in contract chip manufacturing. TrendForce estimated Samsung Foundry generated slightly more than $3.2 billion in revenue in Q1 2026, giving it 6.5% of the global market compared with 72% for TSMC. However, Samsung said it expects foundry revenue to record double-digit year-over-year growth in the second half.
The company has also secured major long-term agreements. Samsung signed a memorandum of understanding with Broadcom in July covering memory, foundry services and advanced packaging, with the planned collaboration estimated at more than $200 billion through 2030. Separately, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that Samsung Taylor, Texas plant would manufacture Tesla next-generation AI6 processor under a 22.8 trillion won agreement running through 2033.
Mature-node capacity is also under pressure. Foundries are allocating more 8-inch wafer capacity to AI-related products including power-management ICs and optical communications components, with average utilisation at the world 10 largest foundries 8-inch fabs reaching 88% in 2026. Average 8-inch foundry prices increased 5% to 15% from Q1 to Q2.
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