Samsung Electronics projected that by 2029 the number of its foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) customers will increase to about four times the level at the time of the business unit’s launch. The company also plans to restructure its business portfolio from a traditional focus on mobile toward a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC).

At the corporate IR event “Korea Premium Week 2026,” held on the 29th at Lotte Hotel Seoul in Jung-gu, Seoul, Noh Mi-jung, Senior Vice President of Samsung Electronics’ Foundry Business, stated, “The current number of customers has increased to about three times compared with 2017, when the Foundry Business was launched as an independent business unit,” and added, “By 2029, it is expected to reach about four times that level.”

Samsung Electronics’ foundry revenue mix is also shifting toward AI and HPC. The share of HPC in total foundry revenue rose from 5% in 2017 to 28% at present. Samsung Electronics has set a target to expand this to 66% by 2029. Noh forecast, “By 2029, HPC customers will account for the majority, and in terms of revenue structure, HPC will account for well over half.”

The company’s strategy is to move away from its previous high dependence on mobile chips such as application processors (APs), which serve as the “brains” of smartphones, and instead focus on high-performance semiconductors such as AI chips. Samsung Electronics aims to begin its third-generation 2nm (nanometer; 1nm is one-billionth of a meter) process in 2028 and to start mass production using the 1.4nm process in 2029.

Samsung Electronics is strengthening cooperation with global big tech companies centered on the 2nm process. A representative example is its order for Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chip, and it is also known that collaboration on next-generation AI chips based on the 2nm process is being pursued recently with Anthropic.

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