Semicon Briefing

TSMC's capacity bottleneck drives a wave of top customers to Samsung: Nvidia validates contracts for autonomous driving chips, Tesla manufactures AI6 at Samsung, AMD negotiates CPU production from 2028 – but Samsung holds only 7% of global capacity vs. TSMC's 70%+. Pressure on Samsung's foundry division, which has struggled with yield issues so far, increases massively.

Samsung brings ASML on board as a partner for the full ramp-up of its 2nm production at the Texas facility in Taylor, fueled by Tesla-linked demand. This represents concrete progress compared to the previous planning phase and signals that Samsung's US foundry bet is transitioning into execution after long delays.

Intel appoints Seok-Hee Lee, former CEO of SK Hynix, as dedicated head of Intel Foundry's advanced packaging division and establishes this area as a standalone business unit. The move underscores Intel's strategy of positioning packaging as a central differentiator in foundry competition with TSMC and Samsung.

ASML CEO Peter Wennink outlines the Terafab project as a manufacturing facility of the next dimension – comparable to fabs capable of producing millions of wafers per month. The concept, apparently discussed in the context of TerraFab/Intel, could redefine the scaling logic of the entire semiconductor industry.

South Korean conglomerate Doosan has agreed to acquire SK Siltron, one of the world's largest manufacturers of silicon wafers for chip production, for approximately $3.6 billion. Since wafers form the foundation of every semiconductor fabrication, this transaction shifts control over a critical upstream bottleneck in the global supply chain.

Beijing placed ten additional US companies on its export control list on June 22 and issued procurement bans – a direct countermeasure to US chip embargoes and technology restrictions. The escalation impacts dual-use supply chains and increases pressure on Western chip firms with China exposure.