Changes in the chip foundry market with SMIC significantly approaching Samsung Electronics.

In the fierce competition in the global semiconductor foundry market, the landscape is undergoing profound changes. Samsung Electronics, once firmly in second place, is now facing serious challenges, while SMIC is showing strong development momentum and rising rapidly. A report released by research firm TrendForce recently showed that in the first quarter of 2025, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) ranked first with a 67.6% market share among the top ten wafer foundries in the world, thanks to its absolute advantage in advanced process introduction speed and yield control. It is worth noting that SMIC is rapidly catching up with Samsung Electronics at an astonishing pace, with its market share climbing to 6% and continuing to grow. In contrast, Samsung Electronics' market share has fallen to 7.7%. Several industry insiders interviewed mentioned that SMIC's growth is attributed to its strategy of preemptively building up inventory to cope with U.S. tariffs and utilizing domestic policies, allowing it to achieve growth against the overall market slowdown. On the other hand, the reason for Samsung's declining market share in the foundry market may be due to customer loss and reduced orders caused by delivery issues.