Samsung's 4nm foundry capacity will be fully loaded until next year, with an increase in 5nm orders to expand the AI server market

According to South Korean media ZDNet Korea, Samsung Electronics' 4nm wafer foundry capacity is fully loaded until next year, mainly driven by a surge in HBM4 orders and unexpected orders for LPU "Grok3" from Nvidia for inference. To address the capacity bottleneck, Samsung is actively recommending the validated 5nm process as an alternative to customers. This process was originally aimed at automotive chips and is now expanding into the server and high-performance AI/NPU chip sectors.

The report states that in the recent 3-4 months, demand for 5nm from customers has significantly increased, mainly from Chinese and Indian fabless companies that have shifted due to tight supply of advanced processes from TSMC and geopolitical factors. Additionally, inquiries from customers regarding the 2nm process are also ongoing.