Samsung Electronics announced on Thursday that it has started mass producing chips with advanced 3-nanometre technology, the first to do so globally, in an effort to race far rival TSMC who is way ahead in chip manufacturing.
In a statement, Samsung announced that unlike the traditional 5-nanometre chips, the new first-gen 3-nanometre process can lessen power consumption by up to 45 per cent, enhance performance by 23 per cent, and decrease area by 16 per cent.
The South Korean electronics giant did not immediately identify clients for its new foundry technology, which manufactures made-to-order chips such as mobile processors and high-performance computing chips. Experts said Samsung itself and Chinese firms are expected to be the very first customers of this latest technology.
According to Samsung Co-CEO Kyung Kye-hyun earlier this year, its foundry business is expected to win new clients in China, where market growth remains high, as various companies rush to secure capacity to mitigate the ongoing global chip shortage.
Samsung is the market leader in memory chips, but it has lagged behind Taiwanese chip giant TSMC in the more diverse foundry business.
Samsung’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of capital spending between 2017 and 2023, which measures how fast a company is increasing its investment, is currently pegged at 7.9 per cent, versus TSMC’s estimated 30.4 per cent, as per Mirae Asset Securities.
For more information, read the original story in Reuters.