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TSMC is investing more than Samsung into chipmaking in 2022

By Doroteya Borisova

Published: Jan 19, 2022, 8:03 AM

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Samsung

It's no secret that Samsung plans to massively expand its semiconductor chip production business. In fact, a Digitimes report released today echoed once more Samsung's long-time plans to overtake TSMC by the year 2030, to become the number one foundry in the world.

However, the mass takeover plan will take quite a bit of effort, and possibly even longer than a decade, according to recently surfaced numbers.

New reports by South Korean media outlets (first discovered by SamMobile) reveal that TSMC will be investing a fair bit more than the tech giant, and could perhaps see proportionally even greater growth than Samsung come next year.

While Samsung has announced that it will be investing a total of $37.3 billion into expanding its chipmaking foundries throughout 2022, TSMC has that beat by a fair bit.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company will be putting in the equivalent of $44 billion in South Korean won. Needless to say, this is likely to result in greater return of investment by the end of 2022, widening the gap and making it extremely difficult for Samsung to catch up, let alone overtake it.

Samsung vs TSMC chip foundry investments for 2022

Despite TSMC reporting significant delays in its 3nm process node planned for 2022—spelling big trouble for dependent large-scale electronics manufacturers like Apple, Intel, and AMD—customers are already flocking to TSMC's gates in large numbers, hoping to secure a cut of the next couple years of production.

This isn't unwarranted by any means, as TSMC has established itself as next thing to a household name with its unrivaled global success. With a market value of over $550 billion, TSMC has long held the top spot as the wealthiest company in Asia, and one of the top 10 most valuable companies in the world.

The company supplies semiconductor chips not only to smartphone manufacturers, but is also critical to the worldwide production of CPUs, GPUs, IPUs, AI technology, cloud infrastructure, household appliances, all the way to F-35 fighter jets.

TSMC's new chip foundry in Arizona

Industry experts report that TSMC's greater popularity with clients than Samsung is also owed to the fact that TSMC beat out the tech giant with its top-of-the-tier 7nm and 5nm process nodes, which were used in the iPhone 11, 12, and 13 flagship series (among others). Samsung's similar process nodes were just not as great, resulting in lower popularity.

Late 2022, and the 3nm process chip, may be where Samsung gives TSMC a real run for its money.

If Samsung does an outstanding job with its 3nm GAA (Gate-All-Around) process—set to enter mass production in the second half of 2022—that's where Samsung may finally have the opportunity to outshine TSMC and begin to close the gap.

Samsung's planned 3nm GAA process already promises to set a sky-high standard in the industry. The newest node is reported to bring a 50% lower power consumption, 30% higher performance, and a 35% size decrease than its 5nm predecessor.

On top of that, Samsung will beat TSMC to launching mass production by at least a month, adding to the tech giant's high prospects of the tech giant's future in chipmaking.

If all goes well, Samsung plans to implement its GAA technology into a 2nm chip come 2024, potentially closing the gap with TSMC and giving its competitor a serious challenge.

Samsung semiconductor chip foundry

Samsung has grown to service over 100 contracted clients with its top-of-the-line 5G chips today. It has already begun building a seventeen billion-dollar chip plant in Taylor, Texas in the U.S, which should be ready to begin eking out wafers by late 2023, as Samsung continues to grow in the chipmaking industry.

Despite Samsung entering 2022 with 15% lower planned investments than TSMC into its chipmaking arm, it continues to enjoy unchecked growth year to year, and its increasingly tight competition with TSMC slowly but surely will help lead the world into recovery from the dire ongoing global chip shortage.