The semiconductor foundry business has gone through a dynamic transformation over the last 30 years. In the beginning the foundries were several process nodes behind the IDMs with little hope of catching up. Today the foundries are leading the process development race at 10nm – 7nm, and will continue to do so, absolutely.

If you look at the foundry landscape, TSMC has the advantage because they are TSMC, the trusted foundry partner with the most mature and complete ecosystem bar none. TSMC is also a process technology leader and fierce competitor.

The market for Samsung Foundry as I see it is three-fold:

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They are not TSMC . Capacity is not an issue with Samsung and it is always good to have foundry options. TSMC and Samsung are the only two leading edge foundries left so this is a much bigger point than most imagine.

Technology . Leading edge fabless companies look for the best technology that will also meet their time to market requirements. Samsung was ahead of TSMC at 14nm and they did quite well at that node. At 10nm and 7nm Samsung was a bit behind TSMC but Samsung 7nm had EUV before TSMC so some fabless companies are now leading with Samsung.