Noh Mi-jeong, a senior vice president at Samsung Electronics' foundry division, made the remarks at Korea Premium Week 2026

The company said its customer count has already tripled since the division's 2017 debut

Samsung is shifting its portfolio from mobile toward AI and high-performance computing

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (right) and Han Jin-man, head of Samsung Electronics' foundry division, attend the Sun Valley Conference on July 7 (local time). [AFP]
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (right) and Han Jin-man, head of Samsung Electronics' foundry division, attend the Sun Valley Conference on July 7 (local time). [AFP]

Samsung Electronics said its foundry division expects to nearly quadruple its customer base by 2029 compared with when the unit launched as a standalone division in 2017, while accelerating a shift in its business portfolio from mobile products toward AI and high-performance computing.

Noh Mi-jeong, a senior vice president at Samsung Electronics' foundry division, said Tuesday at the Korea Premium Week 2026 IR event held at The Grand Lotte Seoul in Jung-gu that the division's customer count has already tripled since it was established as an independent unit in 2017.

"We expect the number of customers to grow to about four times the 2017 level by 2029," Noh said.

To support that growth, Samsung is moving quickly to diversify its business portfolio — expanding beyond smartphone application processors into AI accelerators, data center CPUs, ASICs and HBM. The share of high-performance computing in the foundry division's business has risen from 5 percent in 2017 to 28 percent today, and Samsung projects that figure will reach 66 percent by 2029.

"By 2029, HPC customers will make up the majority, and HPC will account for well over half of our sales," Noh said.

Samsung is targeting mass production of its third-generation 2-nanometer process in 2028 and its 1.4-nanometer process in 2029. The company plans to begin initial operation of its first fabrication plant in Taylor, Texas, by the end of this year, and aims to break ground on a second fab there before year's end, targeting mass production in 2030.


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