According to South Korean media reports, Samsung Electronics plans to increase prices for process nodes such as 4nm and 8nm, with industry estimates suggesting a price increase of around 10%.
On the one hand, the production capacity of mature and sub advanced processes remains tight, with high market demand and limited resources available for expansion.
On the other hand, the 4nm and 8nm processes have successfully passed the stage of yield ramp up and process stability, entering the mature mass production cycle. By adjusting prices, the overall profit of mature and high-yield processes is higher.
In terms of specific positioning, Samsung's 4nm process is mainly aimed at customers who have higher requirements for performance and energy efficiency, while the 8nm process focuses more on large-scale production and cost control, suitable for products that are price sensitive but have a large shipment scale.
By distinguishing the application scenarios of different nodes and synchronously raising prices, Samsung Electronics hopes to further improve long-term profitability while ensuring stable customer structure.
Since entering 2026, multiple global wafer foundries have successively initiated price increases.
TSMC has previously stated that it plans to launch a four-year continuous price increase for advanced processes of 5nm and below starting from January 2026, with an average annual increase of about 3% to 5%.
SMIC will increase the price of 8-inch BCD process outsourcing by about 10% in December 2025, and multiple customers have confirmed the relevant adjustments; Huahong Semiconductor, on the other hand, raised the prices of mature processes as early as the second quarter of 2025 and gradually reflected it in subsequent performance.
The current increase in wafer foundry prices is still due to the continued surge in demand for artificial intelligence.
The demand for AI chips and related accelerators is driving the overall order scale to continuously increase, while advanced processes such as HBM and advanced packaging capacity are being prioritized, further squeezing the available resources of mature and sub advanced processes.
In addition, the continuous increase in labor costs, raw material prices, and energy costs has also raised the overall cost of wafer manufacturing.
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