Samsung Raises Foundry Prices Up to 15% as AI Demand Overflows From a Fully Booked TSMC
Samsung hiked 4nm and 5nm wafer prices by 10–15% and 8nm by about 10%, with Chinese and US customers absorbing the steepest increases. Its Pyeongtaek 4nm line has run at full capacity since late 2025, and the loss-making foundry unit could turn profitable by 2027.
Samsung has raised prices on new orders for its advanced foundry services by up to 15%, the clearest sign yet that AI demand has outgrown TSMC’s leading-edge capacity and is spilling over to the industry’s perennial number two.
The increases, which took effect on July orders, break down by node: SF4 (4nm) wafers rose 10–15% for Chinese and US customers and 5–10% for Taiwanese ones; SF5 (5nm) climbed a similar 10–15%; and even the mature 8nm process got roughly 10% more expensive. Chinese buyers face the steepest hikes — US export restrictions on chipmaking equipment have narrowed their foundry options, and Samsung is charging for the scarcity.
The demand picture explains the pricing power. Samsung’s SF4 line at Pyeongtaek has been running at full capacity since late 2025, producing chips for Qualcomm alongside base dies for Samsung’s own memory business. Its broader customer roster includes Tesla, Apple, Broadcom, Nvidia, and Google. Meanwhile TSMC — which controls over 70% of global foundry revenue against Samsung’s roughly 7% as of Q1 2026 — has already notified customers of 5–10% price increases across sub-5nm nodes starting in January. When the market leader is fully booked and raising prices, the overflow has nowhere to go but Samsung and Intel.
“As TSMC faces tight capacity and raises prices, customers are shifting to rivals such as Samsung and Intel, prompting Samsung to raise its prices as well,” said Lee Min-hee, an analyst at BNK Investment & Securities.
The strategic subtext matters more than the percentages. Samsung’s foundry division has been losing money since 2022, weighed down by yield problems and underutilized fabs. Higher prices, improving yields, and full utilization could push the unit back to profitability as early as 2027, per analyst estimates. For a business that spent years discounting to win customers from TSMC, charging more and still filling its lines is a genuine inflection.
For everyone downstream, this is a cost story. Foundry price increases at 4nm and 5nm flow directly into the chips that power phones, cars, and — above all — AI accelerators. Both of the world’s two largest contract chipmakers raising prices in the same cycle means the AI buildout’s input costs are still climbing, not stabilizing. Cheaper compute keeps getting promised. The wafers say otherwise.