Samsung Foundry Earns $3.2 Billion in Q1, and TSMC… $35.8 Billion

Samsung Foundry continues to lag behind TSMC in the global foundry market. In Q1 2026, the Taiwanese chipmaker bolstered its dominant (top) position with a massive lead in both revenue and market share. Unfortunately, the Korean foundry remained a distant second.

TSMC maintains a massive lead in the global foundry market

According to data from TrendForce, Samsung Foundry saw $3.2 billion in revenue and a 6.5% market share in Q1 2026. While this keeps the Korean giant in second spot globally, the numbers show a huge gap compared to the industry leader, TSMC. The Taiwanese giant earned $35.86 billion and 72.3% share during the same period.

In Q1 2025, Samsung Foundry held 7.7% share with revenue of $2.89 billion. As you can see, revenue has increased slightly year over year, but market share has dipped. The widening gap between the two companies is mainly due to differences in client bases, manufacturing scale, and the execution of cutting-edge technology.

However, Samsung has solid revenue potential in the coming years. The company continues to expand its customer base, particularly as it deepens its 2nm chip manufacturing. Last year, it inked a long-term contract with Tesla to make the carmaker’s AI5 and AI6 chips. Both chips could use a 2nm node, with mass production likely to begin in the second half of this year at its Taylor plant in Texas.

Samsung has reportedly improved its yield for the 2nm node to more than 60%. This could allow the company to attract more major global clients. The company’s 2nm-related orders are expected to increase more than 130% this year compared to last year.

As a result, the company could see an increase in revenue in the coming years. In fact, industry analysts expect it to become profitable as early as Q3 2026. If you are unaware, Samsung has been suffering losses for several years. It will be interesting to see if the gap with arch-rival TSMC begins to narrow in the coming quarters.