Samsung Foundry Operations Climb to 60% Amidst Slow Recovery

The second half of last year saw Samsung’s foundry utilization rate at 50 percent, but the Korean giant has been progressing slowly, to the point that the operating rate has climbed to 60 percent, according to the latest report. With the company’s 2nm GAA yields also improving to 50 percent, it is only a matter of time before it begins to post some healthy numbers as it carves out a goal for its foundry sector to obtain profitability by 2027, with its operating profit estimated to touch an impressive $69 billion this year. The abysmal 3nm GAA process caused Samsung a great amount of financial loss; the latest recovery is due to increased 4nm and 8nm orders The poor yields of 3nm GAA meant that Samsung couldn’t instill confidence in customers as they flocked over to the more reliable alternative, which is TSMC, to place orders. Fortunately, according to ZDNet, after Samsung’s non-memory division was operating at a loss in the magnitude of around 2 trillion won (approximately $1.36 billion), the company is slowly turning things around. However, this healthy progress isn’t due to an increase of 2nm GAA customers, though Samsung appears to be doing well on this front as it has secured a $16.5 billion deal with Tesla to mass produce the AI6 as well as mass produce chips for Chinese cryptocurrency equipment manufacturers. Instead, the utilization rate bump is due to an uptick in 4nm and 8nm orders. With Samsung’s 4nm yields now standing at a more reliable range of 60-70 percent, the foundry giant was previously reported to have won a $100 million order from a U.S. AI firm to develop an Omni processor. The aforementioned deficit of $1.36 billion was also reduced to 1 trillion won (approximately $680 million) in the third and fourth quarters of 2025, indicating that Samsung is slowly moving towards equilibrium. As for its memory business, Samsung is on the moon thanks to the ongoing shortage, but it has only raised DRAM production by 5 percent to 8 million wafers, which is significantly lower than projected demand this year, as the manufacturer is exercising caution ahead of when that demand finally settles. News Source: ZDNet