After a painful period of yield challenges and customer attrition, Samsung's foundry business seems to be seeing a glimmer of hope. According to...Reports allegeSamsung has achieved a key breakthrough in 4nm process technology, with its yield rate now at 60% to 70%, and has successfully secured a large order from a US AI customer.
Securing the Tsavorite order, focusing on OPU architecture
The report indicates that US AI startup Tsavorite Scalable Intelligence has placed chip orders with Samsung worth over US$1 million (approximately NT$32.5 billion).
This order mainly produces Omni Processing Unit (OPU) chips, which use a special architecture design that integrates the CPU, GPU and memory directly onto a single chip, aiming to solve the transmission bandwidth bottleneck commonly encountered in AI computing.
Although foreign media mentioned last November that Tsavorite had received pre-orders for AI chips, the manufacturer was not disclosed at the time. Now, South Korean media have confirmed that its chips will be manufactured by Samsung, indicating that Samsung has regained the trust of some markets in its mid-to-high-end process and integration capabilities.
Order feedback signal? From mining machines to Tesla AI5
In addition to this OPU order, Samsung was previously reported to have secured chip orders from two Chinese mining machine manufacturers, and in October of this year, it signed an agreement with Tesla.AI5 chip foundry agreement.
Although Tsavorite's $1 million order is still considered a "small order" compared to Samsung's overall operating scale, it is seen as an important step in the business recovery of Samsung's foundry division, which urgently needs to prove its yield stability and technological strength.
2nm GAA yield reported at 50%, striving for positive cash flow by 2027
In addition to the stabilization of its 4nm process, Samsung continues to advance its next-generation process technology. Earlier this year, reports indicated that the mass production yield of Samsung's first SoC using 2nm GAA (gate-all-around) technology—the Exynos 2600—had climbed to approximately 50%, and it is expected that some of these chips will be used in the upcoming Galaxy S26 series next year, demonstrating the company's strong commitment to ramping up the yield of its new process.
According to industry expectations, with improved yield rates and order returns, Samsung is expected to achieve a profit of approximately $690 billion in 2026. It also aims to turn its foundry division into a positive cash flow by 2027, attempting to secure its key position as the second supplier in the high-end foundry market dominated by TSMC.
