Semicon Briefing

Intel EVP Alex Katouzian traveled to Seoul this week to discuss the 'future of technology' with Samsung – focused on Physical AI and foundry cooperation. The meeting signals a strategic rapprochement that could reposition Intel's foundry strategy against TSMC.

Lisa Su and Samsung Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun negotiated a deepening of the MOU partnership that has existed since March 2026 for HBM4 and DDR5 server chips. AMD is deliberately diversifying its TSMC dependency while giving Samsung a much-needed brand anchor as a foundry customer.

ASML has formally announced a 10 percent price increase for EUV and DUV replacement parts and field service kits to Samsung and SK Hynix, both of whom have apparently agreed. This underscores ASML's growing pricing power as the de facto monopolist in lithography tools and meaningfully raises manufacturing costs for DRAM manufacturers.

According to leaked transcript, Anthropic plans to shift its ASIC development to Samsung's 2nm process to circumvent TSMC capacity bottlenecks and reduce development costs. This would be a signaling effect for other AI labs and could rehabilitate Samsung's foundry division after years of weakness.

Following the merger agreement adjusted in October (from ~$7 billion to $5.7 billion, all cash, $123/share), a credit facility of up to $2.45 billion is now available – the proxy process is underway. The deal, which survives Cirrus Logic's unsolicited counteroffer, accelerates consolidation in the mixed-signal and HMI chip segment.

NEW DEVELOPMENT: TSMC has contracted GlobalFoundries with a five-year deal worth $2 billion to produce silicon interposers in the U.S. for the first time – a direct result of the CHIPS Act strategy to reduce packaging dependency on Asia through 2028. This closes a critical gap in the U.S. AI chip supply chain and gives GlobalFoundries a strategic anchor.