www.trendforce.com, Sept. 03, 2024 –
As Intel has reportedly been working out options to navigate the company through crisis, its possible moves are said to include selling off Altera, putting a halt to its investment project in Germany, and though, less unlikely, sale of its foundry business. However, if this restructuring does happen, according to South Korean media outlets The Korea Times and The Korea Herald, Samsung and TSMC are unlikely to be buyers for Intel's foundry operations.
A Risky Move for Samsung to Make
Intel's thoughts on its foundry business has been casting ripples in the global semiconductor industry, as the market has been speculating who the buyers might be and whether the falling giant will take action on the potential divestiture of its foundry operations.
Nevertheless, a report by The Korea Times notes that as Intel's foundry market share is currently small, the impact to its competitors may be minimum. Therefore, it is unlikely that this sale will immediately boost Samsung's chip market share.
According to TrendForce's latest analysis, top five rankings in the foundry sector remained unchanged in the second quarter, with TSMC (62.3%), Samsung (11.5%), SMIC (5.7%), UMC (5.3%), and GlobalFoundries (4.9%) stood steadfast in their positions.
Moreover, industry officials cited by the report notes that it could be a risky move for Samsung to make another large investment in Intel's foundry. Samsung's non-memory chip division, which encompasses foundry and large-scale system integration devices, reportedly incurred an operating loss of 300 billion won (USD 2.24 million) in the second quarter of this year, according to the report.