Samsung Electronics’ foundry division plans to halve its capex, according to a report by Seoul Economic Daily. Industry sources told the business paper that the contract manufacturer’s budget is set to drop from 10 trillion won (about 6.7 billion euros) in 2024 to 5 trillion won (about 3.3 billion euros) in 2025. Last year’s capex was already a major step down from the years before, when annual investments ran as high as 20 trillion won.
Samsung has admitted to falling behind in the leading-edge chip-making game but has vowed to catch up. “We must break the vicious cycle of missing opportunities and having to compete again at the next node,” the newly appointed chief, Han Jin-man, said last month. Samsung’s next opportunity is the 2nm node, which has been scheduled for high-volume production in the second half of next year. A significant portion of the 2025 capex will be used to convert current 3nm production lines to 2nm, according to Sedaily.
TSMC recently announced a capex of 40-44 billion euros in 2025, up 40 percent compared to last year.
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