No customers were found for Samsung’s Texas chip factory – causing problems for ASML and others

According to Reuters, the new facility built by Samsung Electronics in Taylor, Texas, is not ready to launch due to the lack of a sufficient number of customers, which is why the company even refused to accept ASML equipment intended for installation at the new production site.

Image Source: Samsung Electronics

ASML was not the only equipment supplier to face Samsung’s reluctance to equip the new facility. Samsung’s suppliers have in some cases been forced to find new customers and also recall staff that were sent to Texas to install supplied equipment. Delays in the Texas project are expected to worsen the situation for Samsung, which has long struggled to reduce its dependence on the cyclical memory market. According to Statista at the beginning of this year, Samsung occupied no more than 11% of the market for contract manufacturing of chips, while TSMC could boast a share of 61.7%.

In part, such prospects for the development of the technological equipment market were described in the quarterly reports of ASML, which seriously alerted investors. At the same time, ASML management did not name the clients who delayed the construction of enterprises, but in addition to Samsung, these include Intel, which was forced to freeze projects for the construction of enterprises in Europe due to financial problems. Last quarter, sales of ASML equipment to South Korea fell by one third in value terms.

According to Reuters, ASML had to refrain from supplying EUV scanners for the needs of Samsung Electronics. One of the sources notes that Samsung still expects to receive equipment for the Texas facility, but at a later date that has not yet been specified. In April, Samsung said it would launch a new Texas facility in 2026 instead of its current one. According to analysts, in order to launch the enterprise by this time, Samsung must receive all the necessary equipment by the beginning of 2025 at the latest. In fact, even the buildings of the enterprise have not been completed at the moment, and the company plans to do this only by the beginning of next year.