With the growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) chip industry, there is an outlook that foundry (contract chip manufacturing) revenue could surpass 300 trillion won this year.
According to market research firm TrendForce on the 19th, as North American cloud service corporations (CSPs) and AI startups continue to invest in AI, demand for foundry services is expected to expand.
Global foundry revenue is expected to reach about $218.8 billion (about 328 trillion won), up 24.8% from a year earlier. TrendForce projected that Taiwan's TSMC, the industry leader, will post growth of around 32%.
TrendForce said, "Demand for advanced processes will be led by AI graphics processing units (GPUs) from corporations such as Nvidia and AMD," and added, "North American CSPs including Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Meta, as well as AI startups like OpenAI and Groq, are also accelerating development of their own AI chips."
It added, "Many of these are expected to enter mass production this year and begin shipments, which will act as a key demand driver for 4- to 5-nanometer and sub-4/5-nanometer advanced processes."
In particular, TrendForce saw that TSMC's sub-4/5-nanometer process capacity will operate at peak utilization through the end of the year.
There is also the possibility that prices will rise, centered on advanced processes. TrendForce said, "This year, TSMC raised foundry prices across all processes at 4- to 5-nanometer and below, and with order visibility extending into next year, there is potential for additional price hikes," adding, "Samsung also informed clients in the fourth quarter of last year of its policy to raise prices for 4- to 5-nanometer foundry services."