Samsung Electronics has raised prices by as much as 15 percent on some advanced contract chip manufacturing services for new orders, according to two people familiar with the matter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence chips tightens available foundry capacity. The South Korean company lifted prices in July for semiconductors made using its 4-nanometre SF4 process, the sources said, with customers in China and the U.S. facing increases of 10 to 15 percent compared with the previous month while Taiwanese clients saw rises of 5 to 10 percent.
The price adjustments extend beyond the SF4 node. Wafers produced by Samsung's 5-nanometre SF5 process rose by 10 to 15 percent, while its older 8-nanometre technology saw prices climb nearly 10 percent, according to one of the sources.
Chinese customers are among those accepting the steepest increases, one of the sources said, underscoring how U.S. curbs on exports of advanced chipmaking equipment to China have increased local firms' reliance on overseas foundries.
Samsung's pricing power reflects TSMC's constrained position. Accelerating AI semiconductor demand has absorbed much of TSMC's leading-edge manufacturing capacity, and with that capacity increasingly spoken for, Samsung has gained greater flexibility to raise its own prices.
The dynamics are visible in market share. Samsung accounted for roughly 7 percent of global foundry revenue during the first quarter of 2026, compared with more than 70 percent for TSMC, according to research firm Counterpoint.
The demand surge has also created a customer squeeze. Samsung faces particularly strong demand from Chinese customers but cannot meet all orders because it must serve U.S. clients and reserve part of its capacity for its own chip production, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing sensitive commercial matters.
Major tech players are locking in Samsung's foundry services. Tesla and Apple announced chip manufacturing agreements with Samsung last year, and Samsung disclosed an AI semiconductor production deal with Broadcom in July.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in March that Samsung would manufacture the company's new AI inference processor, further expanding the South Korean group's exposure to fast-growing AI computing demand. Samsung also dedicates part of its capacity to fabricating base dies for its proprietary multi-layer high-bandwidth memory chips.
The pricing move arrives as Samsung's foundry division works toward profitability. Samsung said in July that it expects the unit to return to profit in the near future as factory utilisation increases, manufacturing yields improve, and pricing becomes more favourable. The foundry business has been a loss maker since 2022, according to industry estimates.
The division has struggled to close the substantial market-share gap with TSMC, even as Samsung's broader semiconductor operations have benefited from soaring prices for memory chips used in AI infrastructure. Samsung expects advanced manufacturing processes to generate more than half of its foundry revenue this year, with AI and high-performance-computing applications making up more than 30 percent, up from 15 to 20 percent in late 2025.
"As TSMC faces tight capacity and raises prices, customers are shifting to rivals such as Samsung and Intel, prompting Samsung to raise its prices as well," said Lee Min-hee, a Seoul-based analyst at BNK Investment & Securities. If Samsung raises prices from here, Lee added, its foundry business could potentially become profitable as early as next year, earlier than previously expected.
