Samsung's Texas Wafer Plant Declared Ready, Will Start Mass Production Next Year

Margaret Han, Vice President of Samsung Electronics' U.S. foundry division, announced at the SAFE forum held at Samsung's U.S. headquarters on the 28th that customers will begin production at the Taylor wafer factory starting next year, explicitly stating that "we are ready."

This represents a clear escalation in Samsung's public stance. During the first quarter's earnings call this year, Samsung described the Taylor facility as "under construction," with the goal of commencing operations in a timely manner within the year. The shift in language to "ready" signals a stronger confidence in mass production. The plant, which began construction in 2022, is expected to have a total investment of $17 billion, approximately 25.5 trillion won.

In terms of process technology, Samsung plans to establish 2-nanometer process capacity at the Taylor facility this year, with external analysis suggesting that the specific process may be SF2P+. SF2P+ is an enhanced version optimized further from SF2P, finetuned for AI workloads while maintaining the same design IP, with performance reportedly increasing up to 30%.

Samsung plans to hold another SAFE forum in its Seoul Seocho headquarters in July this year, where it will disclose detailed technical information about advanced process technology to its partners. In the same month, Samsung will also hold the Samsung Foundry Forum to officially release its foundry technology roadmap.

For investors, the mass production progress of the Taylor facility is directly related to Samsung's ability to catch up with TSMC in the advanced process technology domain. The two forums in July will be an important window to observe the competitiveness of Samsung's foundry business.