After TSMC, Samsung Is Also Reportedly Planning To Hike Chip Prices Amid Demand Surge Fueled By Nvidia, Apple, Tesla And Others

• The news follows reports that TSMC has also been considering a plan to raise rates across all its chip nodes by up to 10% starting January 2027.
• Samsung reportedly raised prices for its SF4 and SF5 processes by as much as 15%, while prices for its 8nm process increased by nearly 10%.
• Apple, Nvidia, Google, Broadcom, Qualcomm and Meta are among the major technology companies linked to Samsung’s foundry operations.

Samsung Electronics (SSNFL) is reportedly raising prices on some advanced foundry services by up to 15% amid surging AI chip demand that has left Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM) fully booked and is pushing more customers toward rival chipmakers.

According to a Reuters report, Samsung is increasing prices on new orders for some advanced contract chipmaking services, with Chinese customers facing some of the steepest increases. Sources familiar with the matter said Samsung has been unable to accept all incoming orders because it needs to serve U.S. customers and reserve capacity for its own chip production.

U.S.-listed shares of Samsung gained more than 10% in pre-market trade. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the South Korean company dipped to ‘neutral’ from ‘bullish’ territory over the past day, accompanied by chatter at ‘high’ levels.

Meanwhile, TSM stock edged 0.4% lower amid weakness in the broader market. Retail sentiment around the chipmaker remained in ‘bearish’ territory over the past day, while chatter increased to ‘normal’ from ‘low’ levels.

TSMC’s Capacity Crunch Creates An Opening For Samsung

The move comes after TSMC was also reportedly mulling over a plan to hike rates across all its chip nodes by up to 10% starting January 2027. TSMC remains the dominant player, accounting for more than 70% of global foundry revenue in the first quarter of 2026, compared with about 7% for Samsung, according to Counterpoint.

That dominance has also created capacity constraints for some customers. TSMC’s 3-nanometer (nm) capacity is reportedly booked through 2026 and 2027, while its 2-nm output for 2026 has already been claimed by customers including Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD.

According to Reuters, major fabless chip designers are increasingly treating Samsung as their only viable overflow option at the leading edge, since Samsung remains the only other foundry currently capable of 2nm production. 

Google, Nvidia, Broadcom, Apple Drive Demand

Tesla (TSLA) and Apple unveiled chip manufacturing agreements with Samsung last year. Samsung also announced an AI chip production deal with Broadcom (AVGO) in July.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in March that Samsung would manufacture the company's new AI inference processor. Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) subsidiary, Google, is also in talks with Samsung to manufacture chips using its SF4 process, according to one of the sources cited by Reuters.

The company is also producing logic chips for customers including Qualcomm (QCOM), while some of its manufacturing capacity is used to produce base dies for Samsung's own multi-layer high-bandwidth memory chips.

Meta (META) has separately been reported to be in talks with Samsung on a custom AI chip order worth more than $6.5 billion for its MTIA AI chips, using Samsung's 2nm process, after concluding TSMC's capacity constraints left it unable to wait.

Samsung Raises SF4, SF5 And 8-Nanometer Prices

The report said Samsung raised prices in July for chips produced using its 4-nanometer SF4 process. Prices for SF4 orders from customers in China and the U.S. increased 10% to 15% from the previous month, while prices for customers in Taiwan rose 5% to 10%.

It added that prices for wafers produced using Samsung's 5-nanometer SF5 process increased 10% to 15%, while prices for its older 8-nanometer technology rose by nearly 10%. Chinese customers have accepted some of the largest increases, the report said. 

Read also: What’s Moving NVDA Stock Today? H200 Chips Reportedly Reach China’s AI Giants

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