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Jun 15
Samsung foundry chief sees 2028 profit path as bonus costs mount

Samsung Electronics' foundry division chief told employees on June 12 that a return to profitability in the contract chipmaking business looks difficult next year, with 2028 emerging as a more likely timeline, Yonhap, ZDNet Korea, and Chosun reported.

Samsung Electronics has secured key technology for a 5nm-class magnetoresistive random-access memory cell, according to Korean financial daily Sedaily, moving ahead just four months after presenting what it described as the world's first 8nm-class MRAM at an international conference.

China has achieved mass production of ultra-pure silicon, according to the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) — an essential material for building silicon-based quantum computers. The breakthrough builds on a government push to sharpen its quantum research edge and reduce its reliance on foreign technology supply chains more broadly.

AI, high-performance computing, and early pull-ins from TV, PC, and notebook supply chains pushed the global foundry market to a record high in the first quarter of 2026. China's Nexchip Semiconductor delivered the key ranking shift, overtaking Taiwan's Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) for the first time to become the world's eighth-largest foundry.
The AI data center buildout is driving demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and networking chips, sending the global IC substrate industry into a new growth cycle. Order visibility now extends two to three years, prompting Taiwan's three leading IC substrate suppliers, Unimicron, Kinsus, and Nanya PCB, to restart capacity expansion targeting GPU, CPU, and ASIC customers.
Researchers and chipmakers presented new logic, memory, and device architectures at the 2026 IEEE/JSAP VLSI Technology and Circuits Symposium in Honolulu, with several results pointing toward pilot production and mass manufacturing.

Qualcomm has been in talks to acquire Tenstorrent, an AI chip startup, The Information reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the deal. The two companies have discussed a price of US$8 billion to US$10 billion, the person said, a significant premium to Tenstorrent's last known valuation.

Shanghai Enflame Technology is nearing a STAR Market listing, bringing another Chinese AI chipmaker closer to public markets while losses, Tencent concentration, and a small share in Nvidia-led accelerators remain unresolved.

Apple is stepping up the AI capabilities of its Siri voice assistant, and analysts say memory chip demand will rise along with it, potentially benefiting Apple's suppliers such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The shift could drive both shipment growth and higher prices for mobile DRAM.

TSMC is accelerating its advanced packaging roadmap for AI chips, expanding CoWoS capacity while publicly disclosing new progress in glass substrate technology. The company is also signaling that next-generation packaging competition is shifting from CoWoS toward CoPoS as it builds out a fuller ecosystem ahead of rivals.

AMD said it will acquire MEXT, a move aimed at strengthening its AI and data center portfolio amid rising global memory demand. The deal is intended to help customers improve performance, reduce infrastructure costs, and accelerate the deployment of AI, analytics, and high-performance workloads across cloud and enterprise systems.
NAND flash memory supplier Kioxia Holdings has surpassed Toyota Motor in market capitalisation, becoming Japan's most valuable company. The development highlights how the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom is reshaping Japan's corporate landscape.