Samsung raised prices on new orders across its 4nm, 5nm, and 8nm foundry processes by up to 15% in July, with Chinese customers absorbing the largest increases amid surging AI demand filling production lines.

Samsung raised prices on new orders across its 4nm, 5nm, and 8nm foundry processes in July, with increases reaching 15% for customers in China and the United States, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. Chinese chip designers, restricted from accessing advanced chipmaking tools by U.S. export controls, are absorbing the steepest hikes. Meanwhile, Samsung’s 4nm fabrication line at its Pyeongtaek facility has reportedly operated at full capacity since late last year. These adjustments follow closely after Samsung reduced its 2nm wafer price to $20,000 in a reported effort to undercut TSMC by approximately one-third.

According to one source, quotes for the 4nm SF4 process climbed 10% to 15% from June for customers in China and the U.S., while Taiwanese clients saw smaller increases of 5% to 10%. Wafer prices for the 5nm SF5 process rose by 10% to 15%, and the 8nm node increased by nearly 10%. Samsung declined to comment on the report.

Chinese orders now exceed what Samsung can accommodate, as U.S. customers receive priority allocation and a portion of capacity remains reserved for Samsung’s internal silicon needs. This constrained demand environment is not unprecedented. The Financial Times reported last year that Samsung’s chip exports to China surged 54% between 2023 and 2024, including a multi-year agreement supplying Baidu’s Kunlun processors with more than three years’ worth of logic dies for AI accelerators.

At the Pyeongtaek facility, the SF4 line manufactures logic chips for Qualcomm alongside the base dies that sit beneath Samsung’s own high-bandwidth memory (HBM) stacks. Consequently, external foundry clients must compete for wafer starts directly against Samsung’s memory division, the unit responsible for driving the company’s record profits. Despite this internal competition, Counterpoint placed Samsung at 7% of global foundry revenue in the first quarter of 2026, compared to more than 70% for TSMC. That market gap currently works in Samsung’s favor regarding pricing strategy.

TSMC’s leading-edge capacity remains fully booked by artificial intelligence orders. The industry leader previously notified customers of 5% to 10% price increases across all sub-5nm nodes beginning in January, with certain services reportedly set to rise by around 25% in 2027. By positioning its recent hikes beneath that broader industry umbrella, Samsung continues to offer quotes below where TSMC’s pricing is projected to land. Industry reports indicate TSMC is considering production service price increases of up to 25% in 2027, which would affect all advanced nodes comprising 74% of its wafer business. Additionally, Samsung has updated its foundry roadmap to push its 1.4nm process development to 2029.

Samsung’s foundry division has operated at a loss since 2022. However, Lee Min-hee, an analyst at BNK Investment & Securities, told Reuters that if Samsung maintains its current pricing trajectory, “its foundry business could potentially become profitable as early as next year.” Confidence in this forecast is bolstered by a growing customer roster over the past year, which includes Tesla’s $16.5 billion AI chip contract, a manufacturing agreement with Apple, a Broadcom AI chip partnership, and an order for Nvidia’s inference processor.