Samsung's foundry business is an important part of the Korean conglomerate's empire. It has been actively seeking to bring new clients on board in order to increase profits from this business. Samsung does appear to be having some luck in doing so.
Its foundry business is projected to grow 19 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2019. That's a commendable increase even as Samsung continues to trail the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in this market.
Samsung still trails TSMC in the foundry market
Market research firm TrendForce has put together a report which projects that Samsung's foundry business will make $3.4 billion in revenue for the quarter ending December 2019. If the projection is accurate, it would represent a 19.3 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
Much of the boost in revenue is attributed to Samsung's 5G networking chips and its image sensors. Samsung's high-end 4G mobile processors are expected to see less demand in this period as the market shifts to 5G. However, Samsung would make up for the lost business by manufacturing the 5G-capable Snapdragon 865 for Qualcomm. Samsung is also reportedly making 14nm PC CPUs for Intel.
Despite its recent wins in the foundry segment, Samsung still has a ways to go before it can truly challenge TSMC's hold over the foundry market. The Taiwanese manufacturer is expected to account for 52.7 percent of the foundry market in Q4 2019 compared to Samsung's 17.8 percent.
Samsung is betting on its foundry business to drive more growth in the future. It said earlier this year that more than $100 billion will be invested in the business by 2030 to expand production of non-memory chips which have for long been Samsung's primary drivers of record profits.
