Samsung to start mass producing 2-nm chips in 2025

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX: 005930) is in focus today after announcing plans of mass producing the world’s most advanced chips in 2025.

Samsung wants to catch up with rival TSMC

On Tuesday, the semiconductor behemoth said it will start making the 2-nm chips for high-performance computing in 2026 and expand to automotive in 2027.

For the mobile market, though, Samsung confirmed this morning that mass production of those chips will begin in 2025.

The announcement is in line with its ambition to catch up with rival TSMC (TPE: 2330) that made up 59% of the global semiconductor foundry revenue in the first three months of this year. In comparison, Samsung stood at 13% only.

Last month, a Susquehanna analyst agreed that TSMC was a better pick than Samsung stock (read more) that’s currently up 30% versus the start of 2023.

Samsung will soon start making 1.4-nm chips as well

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd also reiterated in its announcement today that the 1.4-nm process remains slated to start in 2027.

For reference, the processor on the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max uses a 4-nm process. Moving forward, the South Korean giant is convinced that smartphones will need more advanced chips particularly for the A.I. focused tasks.

Committing to lowering the nanometre figure which basically means a more powerful chip is its way of preparing for that future.

The stock market news arrives a couple months after Samsung reported a rather alarming year-on-year hit to its quarterly operating profit. Wall Street still has a consensus “buy” rating on the tech stock.