TSMC widens lead over Samsung in foundry market: report

TSMC widened its foundry market share lead over Samsung Electronics last year as AI chip demand boosted TSMC sales, TrendForce said.

TrendForce said top foundry revenue rose sharply last year, driven largely by TSMC.

TSMC posted US$122.9 billion in sales, up 36.1%, and captured 69.9% of the market, a 5.5 percentage-point rise.

Samsung Electronics’ foundry revenue fell 3.9% to US$12.6 billion, and its share dropped to 7.2%, widening the gap with TSMC to 62.7 percentage points.

TrendForce said Samsung’s low 3-nanometer yields led to customer attrition.

SMIC ranked third, while TrendForce warned rising memory prices could curb demand later this year.

🔗 Source: Chosun Daily

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Samsung’s market share decline showed signs of reversing in late 2025

Samsung Electronics’ annual foundry share fell, yet fourth-quarter 2025 numbers improved. Revenue rose 6.7% from the prior quarter, while share increased to 7.1% 1.
Separate reports put Samsung’s 3-nanometer yields near 20%. Those reports also estimate 2-nanometer yields at 55–60%, which has helped pull in interest for advanced production runs 2.
The same reports tie the stronger output to a US$16.5 billion (approximately 24.28 trillion won) deal to produce Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chips, plus manufacturing work from customers that include DeepX, a South Korean AI chip startup 2.

TSMC’s market dominance is creating openings for rivals

With nearly 70% market share, TSMC can charge about 50% more for upcoming 2-nanometer wafers than for 3-nanometer wafers. Reports cited by TrendForce say discounts are not planned 3.
Higher prices and TSMC’s attention on large customers such as Apple and NVIDIA may leave room for Samsung to win more deals through more flexible pricing, according to reports 2.
In a separate track, Samsung has reportedly held talks with AMD on producing AMD-designed chips using Samsung’s second-generation 2-nanometer SF2P process 4.