From Tesla and Meta Platforms to Anthropic, Samsung Electronics' Foundry Order Backlog Reaches 50 Trillion South Korean Won

Samsung Electronics is rapidly establishing its core position in the AI semiconductor market through its foundry business.

On July 3, Korean media reported that the scale of Samsung's foundry division's medium-to-long-term order backlog has approached 50 trillion South Korean won. After securing Tesla's AI chip orders last year, global tech giants Meta Platforms and Anthropic have also successively shifted their ASIC production demands to Samsung.

An industry insider stated:

Since Samsung Foundry secured Tesla's AI chip orders last year, semiconductor foundry orders for AI servers have entered a phase of comprehensive acceleration.

Driven by this, market expectations are that Samsung's foundry business will achieve a turnaround to profitability as early as the fourth quarter of this year. The key support for this round of order expansion lies in Samsung's most advanced 2nm process technology.

Meta Platforms' third-generation AI accelerator chip, MTIA 3, and Anthropic's custom ASICs are both planned to be produced using this process. Inquiries about Samsung's 2nm process from external parties have surged sharply, further consolidating its competitive position in the advanced process foundry market.

Meta Platforms Shifts Orders to Samsung, Betting on 2nm Mass Production

According to reports citing industry insiders, Meta Platforms is negotiating with Samsung's foundry division for next-generation ASIC design and production cooperation valued at over 10 trillion South Korean won.

The first two generations of Meta Platforms' self-developed AI accelerator, MTIA, were manufactured by TSMC. However, starting with the third generation released this year, Meta Platforms has locked in Samsung as its core manufacturing partner.

Reportedly, the third generation of MTIA will utilize Samsung Foundry's most advanced 2nm process, with production volume reaching hundreds of thousands of wafers. Samsung Electronics stated, "There is no final decision yet."

Behind Meta Platforms' shift to Samsung is its strategic need to build large-scale AI infrastructure internally.

Meta Platforms is exploring a cloud service business to rent out AI computing power to external enterprises, with MTIA serving as the core chip to support the implementation of this business.

At the same time, Meta Platforms has set a goal to build data centers with a total capacity of 5 gigawatts by 2030, meaning that relying solely on external chip supplies is unsustainable.

To this end, Meta Platforms has initiated a high-speed development cycle of iterating a new chip generation every six months, planning to complete consecutive releases from the third to the fifth generation next year.

To accommodate this ultra-high-speed development cycle, Meta Platforms has also established a joint design mechanism with Samsung's System LSI Division. According to reports, cooperation between the two parties begins at the initial stage of chip architecture design to compensate for the capacity gaps in Meta Platforms' own engineering team under such compressed cycles.

Anthropic Internalizes AI Infrastructure, Samsung May Be the Biggest Beneficiary

US AI company Anthropic is also reportedly evaluating the use of Samsung Foundry's 2nm process to develop custom ASICs. This move is seen as part of its strategy to reduce dependence on NVIDIA GPUs and Google TPUs and promote the "autonomy of AI infrastructure."

In terms of investment scale, Anthropic's long-term plan involves building AI data centers with a capacity of approximately 1 gigawatt, with the total related investment estimated at around $50 billion (approximately 77 trillion South Korean won).

Industry analysts believe that about half of these funds will flow into AI semiconductor procurement. The investment in semiconductors, including ASICs, DRAM, and NAND flash, is expected to be approximately $25 billion (approximately 39 trillion South Korean won).

Samsung Electronics, with its integrated semiconductor capabilities in memory, foundry, and advanced packaging, is widely regarded as the largest potential beneficiary of this round of AI chip procurement by Anthropic.

In May this year, Samsung participated in Anthropic's Series H financing round worth $65 billion (approximately 100 trillion South Korean won), thereby establishing a strategic partnership between the two parties.