Getting crowded
As if the world's leading semiconductor foundry - TSMC - didn't have enough on its plate dealing with the growing threat to its business from GlobalFoundries, it looks like Samsung has decided its wants a bigger piece of the foundry action too.
Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo quotes a Samsung spokesperson as saying Samsung Electronics plans to double its business in making chips for third-party customers every year until it is doing the same kind of numbers as TSMC.
The report values the global foundry market at around $19 billion and quotes the Samsung representative assessing this business as a: "future growth engine with the long-term goal of becoming as big as the world's number one - TSMC."
Apparently Samsung only started dabbling in the foundry market in 2006 and has grown this business to $380 million last year. Obviously there's room for growth there and Samsung's position as the world's leading memory chip-maker will certainly help.
But it's targeting a sector that has been made even more competitive with the arrival of investor ATIC and its acquisitions of GlobalFoundries and Chartered.
