According to a Taiwan media report on Monday, Samsung Group’s semiconductor layout moves frequently. Recently, it may launch large mergers and acquisitions aimed at TSMC’s customers, which has become a hot topic in the market.
It is reported that after Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong returned to South Korea from his trip to the United States, it was reported that Samsung, relying on its capital advantage of more than 100 billion US dollars, might choose one to acquire or invest in a number of international semiconductor makers, including Texas Instruments, Renesas, NXP, Infineon, STMicroelectronics and other important TSMC customers, digging TSMC walls.
According to industry analysis, if Samsung does invest in or take ownership of related companies, it seems that it has the opportunity to tap TSMC customer orders to fill the vacancies in the wafer foundry production line, but it may also damage the highest principle of the foundry industry: neutrality.
The industry pointed out that TSMC does not compete with customers and focuses on wafer manufacturing, while Samsung is manufacturing wafers and exporting multiple private brands, cooperating and competing with customers, which will violate the taboo of wafer specialists competing with customers. It will also strengthen its own right to speak in the semiconductor market, which is bound to make other major manufacturers more jealous. This move is likely to cause changes in the subsequent production strategies of related manufacturers’ foundry outsourcing, and even reorganize the foundry market structure.
Neither TSMC nor the aforementioned semiconductor manufacturers commented on the relevant news. However, local news in South Korea has reported that Samsung is actively promoting the previously mentioned “significant merger and acquisition plan within three years” to achieve the goal of “the world’s number one in semiconductor growth by 2030”.
The latest research report of IC Insights, a market research organization, shows that the ranking of the world’s top ten semiconductor suppliers has changed in the second quarter of this year. Samsung Group has surpassed Intel to become the world’s largest semiconductor supplier. Source