Samsung raises contract chip manufacturing prices by 10–15%: the South Korean giant monetizes the global capacity shortage

Samsung Electronics, the largest South Korean semiconductor manufacturer, once again revised its foundry (contract manufacturing) service prices upward in August 2026. According to Reuters, citing informed sources, the cost of producing 4-nm chips for American customers rose by 10–15% on a sequential basis compared to the previous month. This is not the first price increase in the current cycle: the company has been steadily raising its price list against the backdrop of a global shortage of advanced contract capacity, which allows even Samsung — "perpetually lagging" behind TSMC — to earn significantly more from its customers than before.

Price differentiation by customer and process node

Notably, Samsung has established clear price differentiation depending on the customer's geography and the maturity of the process node. For customers from the US and China, services for producing 4-nm chips became 10–15% more expensive, while for customers from Taiwan, where Samsung faces its main competition from local TSMC, the increase was only 5–10%. Similar 10–15% increases were recorded for the 5-nm process, while the more mature 8-nm process rose moderately — by 10%. According to sources, in its home South Korea there is an influx of Chinese customers willing to pay "literally any amount" for advanced process nodes, yet Samsung is forced to turn many of them down, prioritizing American developers and reserving part of its capacity for its own needs.

Competition with TSMC and market shares

Despite the price increase, Samsung's structural lag behind the Taiwanese leader persists. As of the first quarter of 2026, Samsung's contract division controlled about 7% of the global foundry market in dollar terms, while TSMC accounted for around 70%. In the advanced lithography segment, the gap is even wider: TSMC already offers customers a 2-nm process, whereas Samsung's flagship on the market remain the 4-nm and 5-nm nodes. Nevertheless, it is precisely the capacity shortage and customers' willingness to overpay that create a window of opportunity for Samsung that did not exist in previous years.

Strategy, new customers, and line utilization

By the end of 2026, Samsung expects to bring the share of revenue from chip production using advanced process nodes to 50% of total revenue, while the high-performance computing and AI (HPC/AI) segment is expected to generate up to 30% of the company's revenue — compared to roughly 20% at the end of last year. The 4-nm chip production lines in South Korea's Pyeongtaek have been running at full capacity since the end of last year: here both Qualcomm's 4-nm chips and the base dies for next-generation HBM memory stacks are produced, which Samsung sells independently. Among the major customers since last year are Apple and Tesla, and in 2026 they were joined by Broadcom and Nvidia; reportedly, Google intends to order the production of its own chips using the 4-nm technology. For the current half-year, the company expects double-digit revenue growth in the contract segment compared to the same period last year.

Contradictory data

There is a minor inconsistency in the presentation of figures across media formulations and primary sources. The headlines of several outlets (including 3DNews and delo.ua) use the upper bound — "prices rose by 15%," while materials citing Reuters indicate a range of 10–15% for the 4-nm and 5-nm processes and 10% for the 8-nm. In other words, the point figure of "15%" in the headlines is an upward rounding of the actual range, not a separate fact. Moreover, information about a possible Google order is of a rumor nature and has not been confirmed by the company itself, which distinguishes it from the already executed contracts with Apple, Tesla, Broadcom, and Nvidia.

Forecasts: contract business turning profitable

Experts forecast that, given the global shortage of contract capacity and the steady price increases, Samsung's foundry business could turn profitable as early as next year, 2027. This would be an important signal for the market: the South Korean manufacturer, which has invested in advanced process nodes for years without a return on investment, is finally beginning to monetize its capacity against the backdrop of TSMC — the alternative — remaining overloaded and expensive. Thus, the current market conditions turn Samsung's "chaser" status into a source of sustainable margin.