Samsung Hikes Foundry Chip Prices by up to 15% amid AI Boom

Samsung has hiked the price of building chips on some of its most advanced nodes by up to 15% for fresh orders, Reuters reports. Samsung has been playing catch-up to TSMC for years, but due to the AI boom, the company has now the room to charge more.

Samsung Foundry's Market Share is Rising

The hikes came in effect in July and apply to both the cutting-edge and older nodes. On the 4nm SF4 process, buyers in China and the US are now paying 10-15% more. The 5nm SF5 process saw a similar 10-15% price jump, while even the older 8nm node increased by 10%.

It's Chinese buyers who are facing the steep increase in chipmaking prices. The US is restricting exports of advanced chipmaking equipment to China, so local chip designers have fewer places to fabricate their chips and are relying on foreign foundries like Samsung.

Even then, Samsung is unable to take up all of the demand. It still has to supply chips to its US clients and reserve some capacity for its own in-house Exynos chips.

For context, Samsung received just 7% of global foundry revenue in Q1 2026, which was far behind TSMC's 70%+ share. But with AI orders taking up all of TSMC's leading-edge nodes, the overflow orders are going to Samsung and Intel.

Meanwhile, TSMC has bumped up its 3nm wafer prices by as much as 15% and Qualcomm has warned partners that Snapdragon chip prices are rising by double digits from September. So instead of slashing prices to win customers -- as was the case before -- Samsung can now afford to charge a premium.

Samsung's SF4 fab in South Korea has been maxed out since the end of last year. It's producing chips for companies like Qualcomm, Tesla, Apple, Broadcom and Nvidia. In fact, Qualcomm may return to Samsung after five years to produce some variants of the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6. Apart from that, Google is said to be in early discussions to fab its chips on the SF4 node.

None of this is good news if you are looking to buy a new phone. These foundry price hikes are added on top of the ongoing memory crisis. It has already led to a significant price hike of smartphones in India. With foundries now charging more for the same wafers, both budget and flagship phones are only going to get pricier in the coming days.