TSMC continues to dominate as the world’s leading contract chip foundry, bolstered by a trusted clientele that includes industry giants like Apple, Nvidia, AMD, MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Broadcom. According to data from TrendForce published by The Chosun Daily, TSMC’s market share climbed by 2.4 percentage points to reach an impressive 67.1% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

This means that roughly two-thirds of chips produced in the last three months of the year originated from TSMC. Meanwhile, Samsung Foundry faced challenges that led to a decline in its market share from 9.1% to 8.1%, a drop of a full percentage point. Samsung's foundry has been grappling with low yields on advanced chips, leading to the use of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite in all models of the new Galaxy S25 series.

Unless Samsung Foundry significantly improves its yield on 2nm production—from the current struggling rate of 30%—a repeat performance with the Exynos 2600 for next year's Galaxy S26 lineup may be unavoidable. However, if yield improves before mass production begins, the Exynos 2600 System on Chip (SoC) could be utilized in the Galaxy S26 and S26+ globally, apart from markets like the U.S., China, and Canada.

Interestingly, the gap in market share between TSMC and Samsung Foundry widened from 55.6% in Q3 to an astonishing 59% in Q4. This shift is partly driven by the rising demand for Nvidia's GPU chips essential for AI training, inference, and computing, with TSMC as their manufacturer.

TSMC's growth is further supported by the increasing need for high-end smartphone chips, including those for the iPhone and Samsung's flagship Galaxy series and foldable models. Notably, Google has opted to manufacture its new Tensor G5 AP, designed from the ground up, using TSMC’s advanced third-generation 3nm node technology (N3P) for its Pixel 10 series. This same technology will also be deployed in Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 for the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra.

As for the competition, the third position behind Samsung Foundry is occupied by China’s SMIC, which is currently producing Huawei’s APs and potentially reaping profits from manufacturing Huawei’s Ascend AI accelerators. However, U.S. sanctions have hampered SMIC's ability to acquire advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, limiting their chip production capabilities to a maximum of 7nm process nodes.

In terms of financial performance, TSMC reported a staggering $26.85 billion in revenue for Q4 2024, marking a 14.1% increase year-on-year. In contrast, Samsung Foundry’s Q4 revenue faced a downturn, shrinking by 1.4% to $3.26 billion.