The foundry planned to lay off 30 percent of its workforce in 2024 which I suspect has already happened. Now the foundry’s facility investment budget has been reduced by half for 2025. So, for the time being, Samsung Foundry will continue to downsize despite its ambitions and the new plant in Taylor, Texas.
The reason Samsung Foundry is having to do this is also the most common cause you could think of: not enough clients. Industry insider Jukanlosreve recently shared that the foundry was failing to attract big customers. Naturally if a business cannot find business it…goes out of business.
The new Galaxy S25 phones all use Snapdragon chipsets. | Image credit — Samsung
A Samsung spokesperson also reached out to me and confirmed that the company’s plans to manufacture 2 nm and even 1.4 nm chips were still underway. Samsung may have had to give up on Exynos for the Galaxy S25 line but we’ll soon see it return with the Exynos 2500 on the Z series.
The foundry has some catching up to do and will need to really prove itself before it can start attracting bigger clients but I think it can be done. If the 3 nm and eventually 2 nm manufacturing processes are stabilized then Samsung Foundry can bag customers by offering more affordable chipsets.
I also want Samsung Foundry to succeed because I really hope to see an Apple silicon moment for Samsung. Apple’s in-house chips — though manufactured by TSMC — completely revolutionized its products. Imagine what Samsung could do if it makes Exynos chips that finally outperform the competition.Galaxy laptops powered by such chips could give the MacBook a run for its money. And Galaxy phones using these processors could become some of the best phones we’ll see in our lifetime.
