# Samsung South Korean conglomerate whose semiconductor division operates across both chip fabrication (foundry) and memory manufacturing — the only company in the world that competes in both arenas at scale. Samsung is the world's largest memory chip maker by revenue and the second-largest foundry (behind [[TSMC]]), though its foundry market share has declined sharply, falling to 7.2% in 2025 as yield problems cost it major customers. Samsung's $73 billion 2026 semiconductor investment — roughly $30 billion earmarked for HBM (high-bandwidth memory) production at its Cheonan and Pyeongtaek facilities — reflects the industry-wide pivot toward AI infrastructure. Samsung is one of only three companies (with [[SK Hynix]] and [[Micron]]) capable of manufacturing the HBM memory chips that sit beside [[NVIDIA]] GPUs and feed them data at terabyte-per-second speeds. The company unveiled HBM4E and previewed HBM5 architecture at GTC 2026, though it trails SK Hynix in HBM market share (roughly 15–20% vs. SK Hynix's 60–70%). On the foundry side, Samsung's second-generation 2nm GAA (gate-all-around) process is slated for production in 2026 via the Pyeongtaek P5 "Giga-Fab." GAA transistor architecture is the successor to FinFET — Samsung was first to market with GAA but has struggled with yields, allowing [[TSMC]] to maintain its commanding foundry lead. Samsung's foundry uses [[ASML]] EUV lithography systems for its advanced nodes. Samsung matters to the vault as a node in the [[Chip Export Controls]] story: as a Korean company with significant China-facing operations, Samsung navigates the same export restriction pressures as [[ASML]] and other equipment makers, while South Korea's strategic alignment with US technology policy adds a geopolitical dimension. ## See Also - [[TSMC]] — its foundry rival - [[SK Hynix]] — its Korean HBM competitor - [[Micron]] — the third HBM manufacturer - [[NVIDIA]] — the customer driving HBM demand - [[ASML]] — supplier of its lithography systems - [[Chip Export Controls]] — the geopolitical context - [[Semiconductor Fabrication]] — the manufacturing process