Samsung to Increase 4nm Chip Production for Itself and Chinese Mining System Developers

Samsung Electronics’ failures in the contract manufacturing of 4-nm chips have so far been discussed mainly at the rumor level, since the Korean giant is generally not particularly public in this area. According to fresh unofficial information, from June this year Samsung will begin to increase the production of 4-nm products for third-party clients, including Chinese developers of chips for cryptocurrency mining.

Image Source: Samsung Electronics

At the same time, as Chosun Daily notes, the volume of orders for the production of 4-nm Exynos processors for its own needs should increase, so the degree of utilisation of the specialized lines at the Pyeongtaek plant will increase significantly from June. Until then, part of Samsung’s production capacities involved in the contract business will be idle. From June, the specialized lines will start working at full capacity. It is noted that last year, Samsung stopped half of its production lines at the P2 and P3 plants in Pyeongtaek, which were involved in the production of chips using technologies from 7 to 4 nm for third-party customers.

It was only this month that the situation began to improve, and Samsung began restarting the idle lines at the campus. In addition to demand for its own Exynos processors, this was driven by orders for logic cores for the HBM4 memory type that Samsung plans to produce in the foreseeable future, as well as demand from Chinese developers of cryptocurrency mining solutions. According to informed sources, all the idle lines in Pyeongtaek have already been restarted, and their utilisation levels will reach their maximum levels by June.

At the same time, Samsung is reported to have suspended orders for Baidu to manufacture 4nm computing accelerators. The Korean contractor wants to make sure that such activities do not harm the company in the context of the policy promoted by the current American leadership.