In the second quarter of this year, Taiwan's TSMC exceeded 70% of market share in the global foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) market. Samsung Electronics maintained its position as the second-largest player, but its market share decreased compared to the previous quarter, widening the gap with TSMC.
According to market research firm TrendForce on the 1st, the sales of the top 10 foundry companies worldwide in the second quarter reached $41.7 billion, an increase of 14.6% compared to the transfer quarter, setting a new all-time high.
This is due to the impact of China's consumer subsidies program, which facilitated inventory acquisition, alongside increased demand for new smartphones, laptops, PCs, and servers scheduled for release in the second half of the year.
By company, TSMC's market share increased from 67.6% in the first quarter to 70.2%, up 2.6 percentage points (P). In contrast, during the same period, Samsung Electronics decreased from 7.7% to 7.3%, recording only one-tenth of TSMC's share. As a result, the gap between the two companies widened from 59.9% P in the first quarter to 62.9% P in the second quarter.
TrendForce noted, "TSMC showed excellent performance due to the entry into production cycles of major smartphone clients, an increase in shipments of artificial intelligence (AI) chips, and rising average selling prices (ASP) for laptops and PCs."
China's SMIC, the third largest company, saw its market share decline from 6% in the first quarter to 5.1% in the second quarter. Despite the increase in demand due to U.S. tariffs and responses to Chinese subsidies, difficulties in advanced lines led to shipment delays and a drop in ASP, according to TrendForce's analysis. Consequently, the gap between Samsung Electronics and SMIC expanded from 1.7 percentage points in the first quarter to 2.2 percentage points in the second quarter.