For a long time, Samsung's development in the foundry sector has been fraught with challenges. In the race for advanced process technology, although Samsung was first to adopt GAA (Gate-All-Around) technology in its 3nm process in an attempt to overtake Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, it fell into a passive position due to initial yield issues. Market research firms estimate that Samsung's cost of manufacturing 3nm chips is about 40% higher than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's, leading to the loss of high-end customer orders as industry giants like Apple and NVIDIA continue to gravitate toward Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. According to TrendForce data, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing held a 67.6% share of the global foundry market in Q1 2025, while Samsung's share declined from 8.1% in the previous quarter to 7.7%. In process advancement, Samsung's originally planned 1.4nm process for mass production in 2027 was announced in June 2025 to be delayed until 2029, with test line construction also postponed. Meanwhile, the advanced process wafer fab in Tyler, Texas, has delayed its opening until 2026 due to lack of customers, further highlighting the difficulties in expanding its advanced process market.

However, under pressure from advanced process challenges, Samsung has quietly turned its attention to another key battlefield. In recent years, advanced packaging has become a strategic high ground in the semiconductor industry. Facing structural challenges in foundry business, this tech giant has chosen to focus on advanced packaging technology as a breakthrough path, with a series of new initiatives gradually unfolding, opening up new possibilities for its semiconductor competition.

**Advanced Packaging: Samsung's Technology Breakthrough Battle**

**$7 Billion Facility Investment: Samsung Targets US Advanced Packaging Market Gap**

After signing a $16.5 billion chip foundry contract with Tesla Motors, Samsung quickly launched a major strategic move. Recently, Samsung officially announced plans to invest $7 billion to build an advanced chip packaging facility in the United States. This news instantly ignited industry attention and became a hot topic of discussion in the global semiconductor field.

As mentioned above, Samsung's foundry business has long been mired in difficulties. Tesla Motors' massive order was like rain after a long drought, greatly boosting Samsung's market value and market confidence, while also injecting a strong stimulus for its subsequent investment plans and strengthening Samsung's determination to further cultivate the US market.

From a planning perspective, this advanced packaging facility is strategically located in the United States, precisely targeting current weak points in the US semiconductor industry. Currently, the US has strong capabilities in chip design and wafer manufacturing, with design giants like NVIDIA and Qualcomm, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Intel also having wafer fabs locally. However, high-end packaging technology severely lags behind, with no high-end packaging facilities built domestically. Globally, 90% of advanced packaging capacity is concentrated in Asia, and the US lacks key technology facilities for 2.5D/3D stacking and Chiplet integration. This industry gap has become Samsung's core strategic entry point.

This $7 billion packaging facility will become a key component of Samsung's "design-manufacturing-packaging" integrated model. According to plans, the facility will focus on high-end packaging technology and synergize with the Texas Tyler wafer fab to provide customers with full-process services from chip design to finished product delivery. This layout precisely capitalizes on the time gap with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's US advanced packaging facility won't be operational until 2029 at the earliest. If Samsung can land first, it can seize valuable first-mover advantage and gain an edge in the time window.

Notably, Samsung's investment pace aligns with order acquisition. Ten days after securing the Tesla Motors order, it also won Apple's image sensor order, demonstrating customers' urgent need for its localized production capacity. To avoid US tariff barriers, full localization from chip manufacturing to packaging and testing has become inevitable, further highlighting the urgency of building domestic packaging facilities.

Furthermore, from a technology positioning perspective, as semiconductor technology evolves, advanced packaging has become a key path for improving chip performance and achieving heterogeneous integration. Samsung's expansion plans in advanced packaging target Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's dominant position in AI chip packaging with CoWoS technology. In Chiplet ecosystem construction, Samsung hopes to build next-generation Chiplet ecosystems in partnership with US chip design companies by efficiently co-packaging HBM high-bandwidth memory with logic chips, positioning itself favorably in future chip technology competition.

Considering supply chain layout, establishing packaging capacity on US soil aligns with global supply chain localization and security trends. Samsung can leverage the Texas Tyler wafer fab to provide customers with one-stop services from chip design and manufacturing to packaging, significantly shortening delivery cycles and improving responsiveness to customer needs. Especially with the current explosion in AI chip demand, supplementing US domestic packaging capacity will provide more convenient and efficient supply chain options for high-performance computing chip companies like NVIDIA and AMD, enhancing Samsung's comprehensive competitiveness in the high-end chip market.

Policy benefits cannot be ignored either. Of the $52 billion in subsidies provided by the US CHIPS and Science Act, $2.5 billion is specifically allocated to advanced packaging. Samsung's investment plan aligns highly with policy direction and is expected to receive considerable subsidy support, effectively reducing initial investment risks.

However, Samsung's layout is not without challenges. Building facilities in the US faces high labor and energy costs, 30%-40% higher than South Korea, making cost balance a challenge. Additionally, there's a shortage of US semiconductor professionals, particularly technical experts in advanced packaging. Samsung needs to properly address talent recruitment and training issues to ensure smooth facility operations.

In summary, Samsung's $7 billion US packaging facility investment is both precise positioning for market gaps and a key strategic move in its semiconductor business transformation. By filling US industry chain gaps, integrating policy resources, and leveraging integrated advantages, Samsung is attempting to achieve a leapfrog over Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in advanced packaging. The ultimate effectiveness of this layout will not only affect Samsung's own market position but will also reshape the competitive landscape of the global semiconductor industry.

**Samsung Establishes Advanced Packaging R&D Center in Yokohama**

In the global competition for advanced semiconductor packaging technology, Samsung Electronics has made another important move. Recently, according to industry sources, Samsung plans to invest 25 billion yen (approximately $170 million) to establish an advanced chip packaging R&D center in Yokohama, Japan, aimed at strengthening its technical capabilities in this field and further challenging Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's leading position.

The R&D center will be located in the Leaf Minato Mirai building in Yokohama's Minato Mirai district. This 12-story building (including 4 basement levels) with a total floor area of 47,710 square meters will be transformed into a R&D base combining research laboratories and pilot production lines, expected to officially open in March 2027. Notably, this is Samsung's first acquisition of a large building in Japan in nearly a decade - it previously sold part of its Tokyo Roppongi headquarters building in 2015, highlighting its strategic emphasis on the advanced packaging sector.

From an ecosystem perspective, Samsung's Yokohama R&D center will focus on deepening collaboration with Japan's semiconductor industry. Plans include establishing technical cooperation with Japanese material and equipment suppliers such as Disco Corp, Namics Corp, and Rasonac Corp, and strengthening industry-academia collaboration with the University of Tokyo - located less than an hour's drive from the R&D center. Samsung plans to recruit numerous master's and doctoral-level researchers from the university to strengthen its R&D team. Yokohama City will also provide 2.5 billion yen in startup subsidies for the project.

Samsung's move directly addresses its shortcomings in packaging and market opportunities. As a key technology for chip performance enhancement, advanced packaging enhances chip functionality through 2.5D/3D stacking and Chiplet integration without relying on ultra-fine nanometer processes, making it crucial for AI chip manufacturing. However, Samsung currently lags behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in this field: Counterpoint data shows Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing held a 35.3% total share in foundry, packaging, and testing markets in Q1 2025, while Samsung held only 5.9%, with particularly obvious gaps in high-end packaging capacity and technology.

However, market growth potential and internal breakthroughs provide momentum for Samsung. The advanced chip packaging market is expected to grow from $34.5 billion in 2023 to $80 billion in 2032, while Samsung's recent $16.5 billion AI6 chip order from Tesla Motors is viewed by the industry as evidence of its improved turnkey service (foundry + packaging integration) capabilities. The establishment of the Yokohama R&D center is Samsung's key layout to improve its "design-manufacturing-packaging" full-chain services and catch up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

With Samsung's increased investment in advanced packaging R&D in Yokohama, competition in the global semiconductor packaging market will further intensify. This is not only a technical competition but also a contest of industry chain ecosystems, and the Yokohama R&D center may become an important pivot for Samsung to narrow the gap with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

**Samsung Advances SoP Technology, Challenging Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's SoW Packaging Dominance**

In next-generation advanced packaging technology competition, Samsung Electronics is fully promoting commercialization of "SoP (System on Panel)" technology, directly competing with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's SoW (System-on-Wafer) technology and Intel's EMIB process, vying for dominance in next-generation data center-level AI chips.

Samsung's SoP technology's core innovation lies in using ultra-large 415mm×510mm rectangular panels as packaging carriers, far exceeding the effective utilization area of traditional 12-inch wafers (300mm diameter). Traditional wafer-level packaging is limited by circular wafer form, with maximum integrable rectangular module size around 210mm×210mm, while Samsung's SoP panels can easily accommodate two such modules and even produce ultra-large semiconductor modules of 240mm×240mm or larger, providing greater integration space for ultra-large-scale AI chip systems.

Architecturally, SoP eliminates the printed circuit boards (PCB) and silicon interposers required in traditional packaging, achieving direct chip-to-chip communication through fine copper redistribution layers (RDL). This design not only improves integration but also reduces packaging costs, particularly suitable for AI chips and data center high-performance computing scenarios. Samsung's accumulated FOPLP technology experience in panel-level packaging provides a solid foundation for SoP development.

For commercialization, Samsung targets Tesla Motors' third-generation data center AI chip system as an important goal. This system plans to integrate multiple AI6 chips, initially intended to use Intel's EMIB technology for production. If Samsung can solve SoP's challenges of edge warpage, mass production stability, and high-density RDL process development, it could enter Tesla Motors' packaging supply chain with its larger packaging area and cost advantages. Additionally, Samsung's simultaneously developed "3.3D" advanced packaging technology will further enhance its packaging efficiency and cost competitiveness.

As Samsung's main competitor, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's SoW technology has entered practical application. This technology is based on 12-inch wafer carriers and extended from InFO technology, divided into SoW-P (integrating only SoC components) and SoW-X (integrating SoC+HBM+I/O dies) platforms. SoW-P is already in production for mobile and edge devices; SoW-X is planned for production in 2027, capable of integrating 16 high-performance computing chips and 80 HBM4 modules, designed specifically for AI/HPC scenarios, providing up to 260TB/s die-to-die bandwidth.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's SoW technology, leveraging mature wafer manufacturing systems, has advantages in yield control and mass production stability, currently used by companies like Tesla Motors and Cerebras for supercomputing chip mass production. Its latest SoW-X technology, through wafer design reconstruction and advanced liquid cooling strategies, can support 17,000W power budgets, improving performance by 46% and reducing power consumption by 17% compared to traditional computing clusters.

Samsung's bet on SoP technology essentially challenges Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's dominance in advanced packaging through differentiated approaches. For Samsung, successful SoP commercialization would not only enhance its "design-manufacturing-packaging" integrated service capabilities but also strengthen cooperation with major customers like Tesla Motors - Samsung has already secured Tesla Motors' $16.5 billion AI6 chip foundry order, and if SoP technology matures, packaging services could also be included in the cooperation scope.

Although SoP currently faces technical challenges like large-scale operation stability and ultra-large packaging remains a niche market, Samsung is improving yield through continuous R&D, attempting to seize market opportunities before Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's SoW-X full-scale production, reshaping the competitive landscape in advanced packaging.

**Samsung Plans Glass Substrate Packaging, 2028 Technology Implementation**

In the advanced packaging technology race, Samsung Electronics has also set its sights on glass substrates, an emerging field. According to latest reports, Samsung has clearly planned to introduce glass substrates into advanced semiconductor packaging in 2028, with the core goal of replacing traditional silicon interposers with glass interposers. This is the first official disclosure of Samsung's glass substrate technology roadmap.

Interposers, as key components in AI chip 2.5D packaging structures, bear the important function of connecting GPUs and HBM memory, directly affecting chip data transmission efficiency. Current mainstream silicon interposers, while offering high-speed transmission and high thermal conductivity advantages, have high material costs and complex manufacturing processes, becoming bottlenecks constraining AI chip cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Glass interposers, with their characteristics of easily achieving ultra-fine circuits, can not only further enhance semiconductor performance but also significantly reduce production costs, becoming the industry's recognized replacement direction.

Samsung's technology route selection is quite strategic. To accelerate prototype development, it prioritizes developing glass units smaller than 100×100mm rather than directly adopting 510×515mm large-size glass panels. Although small sizes may affect mass production efficiency, they can help Samsung complete technical verification and enter the market faster. This decision aligns with plans from companies like AMD - the industry generally expects 2028 to be the key node for large-scale glass interposer applications.

In technology implementation, Samsung fully leverages its group combat advantages. Since March this year, Samsung Electronics has joined with Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Display, and other affiliated companies to jointly develop glass substrate technology: Samsung Electro-Mechanics contributes proprietary technology for semiconductor-substrate integration, while Samsung Display provides glass process support, forming cross-domain technical synergy. Recent additions of technical talent have further strengthened its R&D capabilities in this field.

For production line layout, Samsung plans to combine glass interposers provided by external partner companies with existing panel-level packaging (PLP) production lines at its Cheonan campus for packaging operations. PLP technology, as a process completing packaging on square panels, has higher production efficiency compared to traditional wafer-level packaging (WLP) and is highly compatible with the square characteristics of glass substrates, providing a ready manufacturing foundation for glass interposer mass production.

Samsung's move directly addresses packaging pain points in the AI era. At last year's foundry forum, Samsung proposed a one-stop AI solution strategy covering foundry, HBM, and advanced packaging, and the addition of glass substrate technology will further complete this system. By introducing glass interposers, Samsung can not only improve performance and cost advantages in packaging but also create synergies with its own HBM memory and advanced process foundry businesses, enhancing comprehensive service capabilities for AI chip customers.

Notably, Samsung's glass substrate strategy differentiates from industry competitors. Rather than blindly pursuing large-size panel technology, it uses a combination strategy of small unit rapid verification, group resource synergy, and existing production line reuse to steadily advance technology implementation. This pragmatic approach not only reduces technical risks but also highlights Samsung's overall layout thinking of "multi-point breakthrough, continuous iteration" in advanced packaging.

As the 2028 implementation deadline approaches, glass substrates may become another important chip for Samsung to challenge packaging technology heights.

**Fan-Out PKG Layout: Key Support for Mobile AI Chips**

Against the backdrop of rapid mobile AI technology development, packaging technology needs to find precise balance between high performance, low power consumption, and compact design. Samsung's Fan-Out PKG technology, with its flexible architecture and efficient performance, has become a key supporting solution for mobile AI chips.

Fan-Out packaging technology has been applied to mobile AP (application processor) mass production since 2023, with its core adopting chip-last and double-sided redistribution layer (RDL) FOWLP (Fan-Out Wafer Level Packaging) technology. Compared to traditional packaging solutions, this technology achieves multi-dimensional improvements: process turnaround time reduced by 33%, significantly improving production efficiency; more flexible architectural design adaptable to customized needs of different mobile devices; thermal resistance reduced by 45%, significantly enhancing heat dissipation capabilities and effectively solving heat dissipation challenges in mobile devices' compact spaces.

Targeting mobile AI's need for low-power wide I/O memory, Samsung further introduced multi-chip stacking FOPKG technology. Through high aspect ratio copper pillars (AR>6:1) and fine-pitch RDL design, this technology achieves performance leaps of 8x I/O density improvement and 2.6x bandwidth increase, while production rate improves 9x compared to traditional vertical wire bonding technology, balancing performance enhancement with mass production economics.

However, Fan-Out packaging still faces unique challenges in mobile device applications. Mobile devices' high sensitivity to power consumption and heat dissipation requires technology to solve material matching issues in high-density interconnections - for example, inconsistent coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) among different materials may cause stress accumulation, affecting packaging reliability. Additionally, as mobile AI computing power demands continue growing, Fan-Out packaging scalability still needs optimization. Samsung is addressing this through material innovation (such as developing low-CTE substrates) and modular design to further enhance technology adaptability to diverse mobile scenarios.

As an important component of Samsung's heterogeneous integration ecosystem, Fan-Out packaging synergizes with HBM, 3D logic stacking, I-Cube, and other technologies to jointly drive mobile AI chip performance breakthroughs. In the future, through continuous improvements in stacking layers, pitch design optimization, and interposer size expansion, Samsung's Fan-Out packaging technology is expected to continue leading mobile AI packaging technology evolution while addressing challenges of heat dissipation bottlenecks, process complexity, and cost control.

**Samsung SAINT Technology: Innovative Breakthrough in Memory-Logic Collaborative Packaging**

In advanced packaging technology layout, Samsung Electronics has also launched the SAINT (Samsung Advanced Interconnect Technology) system, focusing on collaborative packaging of memory and logic chips, building differentiated competitiveness through innovative 3D stacking technology.

The SAINT technology system encompasses three targeted 3D stacking solutions, each adapted to different chip type integration needs:

SAINT-S: Stacking technology designed specifically for SRAM, optimizing static random access memory integration efficiency; SAINT-L: Stacking solution for logic chips, enhancing vertical integration density of logic circuits; SAINT-D: Collaborative design for HBM memory and logic chips, adopting vertical stacking architecture to stack HBM chips directly on top of processors like CPUs or GPUs.

Among these, SAINT-D technology is most innovative, completely changing the traditional 2.5D packaging model of horizontally connecting HBM and GPU through silicon interposers. It uses thermal compression bonding (TCB) processes to achieve 12-layer vertical stacking of HBM, successfully eliminating dependence on silicon interposers. This not only simplifies structure but also brings significant performance improvements: thermal resistance reduced by 35% compared to traditional processes, with yield reaching 85%. This technology lays the foundation for efficient collaboration between HBM memory and logic chips, with Samsung capturing 25% of global HBM capacity share in 2025 through this technology.

However, vertical stacking solutions also place higher requirements on HBM memory substrate manufacturing processes, requiring development of more complex substrate production technologies.

To support SAINT technology implementation and mass production, Samsung is simultaneously advancing global packaging facility layout. In South Korea, Samsung signed an agreement with Cheonan City, Chungcheongnam-do Province, planning to build an advanced HBM packaging factory covering 280,000 square meters, expected to be completed in 2027. In Yokohama, Japan, Samsung is building an Advanced Packaging Lab (APL) R&D center, focusing on next-generation packaging technology research, concentrating on packaging innovation for high-value chip applications like HBM, artificial intelligence, and 5G.

Through SAINT technology system construction, Samsung further strengthens collaborative packaging capabilities between memory and logic chips, providing more efficient, lower power consumption integrated solutions for AI, high-performance computing, and other fields, while adding key chips to its competition in the advanced packaging race.

**Samsung I-Cube and X-Cube Advanced Packaging Technologies**

In the competitive landscape of advanced packaging technology, Samsung Electronics has built a technology system centered on I-Cube and X-Cube, covering 2.5D and 3D IC packaging fields respectively. Through technology comparison with competitors like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Intel, Samsung's positioning and characteristics in this field become clearer.

Samsung's I-Cube technology focuses on 2.5D packaging, subdivided into I-Cube S, I-Cube E, and derived H-Cube solutions, meeting diverse needs through different interposer designs.

**I-Cube S: High-Bandwidth Silicon Interposer Solution** I-Cube S uses silicon interposer as the core connection carrier, horizontally integrating logic chips and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) dies on the same interposer, achieving high computing power, high-bandwidth data transmission, and low latency characteristics. Its technical advantages are reflected in three aspects: excellent warpage control capability even under large-size interposers; ultra-low signal loss and high storage density characteristics; significantly optimized thermal efficiency control. Structurally, I-Cube S is similar to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's CoWoS-S technology, both adopting "chip-silicon interposer-substrate" three-layer architecture, suitable for high-end AI chip scenarios with stringent performance requirements.

**I-Cube E: Embedded Silicon Bridge Innovative Design** Unlike I-Cube S's complete silicon interposer, I-Cube E adopts a hybrid architecture of "Embedded Silicon Bridge + RDL interposer": deploying silicon bridges in high-density interconnect areas for fine routing, while other areas use RDL interposers without through-silicon vias (TSV) for connection. This design retains silicon bridge's fine imaging advantages while leveraging RDL interposer flexibility in large-size packaging. This technology is similar to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's CoWoS-L architecture, both borrowing core concepts from Intel's EMIB technology, offering better balance between performance and cost.

**H-Cube: Hybrid Substrate Transition Solution** H-Cube is a derivative technology of the I-Cube series, adopting a "silicon interposer-ABF substrate-HDI substrate" hybrid structure. By combining fine-imaging ABF substrates with high-density interconnect (HDI) substrates, H-Cube can support larger packaging sizes with routing density further improved over basic I-Cube S. However, from a technology evolution perspective, H-Cube leans more toward transitional solutions - as HDI substrate routing capabilities improve, ABF substrate intermediate layers may be eliminated in the future. Therefore, Samsung doesn't treat it as an independent technology category but includes it under the I-Cube system.

**3D IC Breakthrough: X-Cube Vertical Integration Technology** X-Cube is Samsung's core technology for 3D IC packaging, achieving vertical electrical connections between chips through through-silicon vias (TSV), significantly improving system integration. Based on different interface connection methods, X-Cube is divided into two types:

X-Cube (bump): Uses bump connections for upper and lower chip interfaces, with high technology maturity, suitable for cost-sensitive mid-to-high-end applications. X-Cube (Hybrid Bonding): Uses hybrid bonding technology for interface connections, greatly improving interconnect density and thermal conduction efficiency, representing a high-performance solution for the future.

Both solutions share consistent structural frameworks, with core differences in connection precision and performance, together forming Samsung's technology reserves in 3D packaging.

Overall, unlike Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's pure foundry technology output model, Samsung and Intel's advanced packaging technologies serve their own chip products more, resulting in relatively lower market visibility. In technology routes, Samsung currently plays more of a follower role, with I-Cube and X-Cube series showing many similarities to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing products. To achieve overtaking, Samsung needs greater investment in technology differentiation and ecosystem building.

However, as a "sunrise sector" in the semiconductor industry, advanced packaging still has enormous room for technology maturity improvement. Samsung, with its synergistic advantages in memory chips and wafer manufacturing, has potential for breakthroughs in this field in the future.

**Conclusion**

Against the backdrop of foundry business pressure, Samsung views advanced packaging as a core strategic breakthrough direction, building competitive barriers through multi-dimensional layout. From betting $7 billion on US packaging facilities to capture market gaps, to establishing Yokohama R&D centers for deeper technical collaboration; from advancing SoP panel-level packaging to challenge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's SoW dominance, to planning 2028 glass substrate technology implementation, Fan-Out PKG supporting mobile AI, SAINT system strengthening memory-logic collaboration, and I-Cube with X-Cube covering 2.5D/3D packaging scenarios, Samsung has formed a three-dimensional layout of "technology R&D + capacity implementation + ecosystem collaboration."

Samsung is committed to compensating for advanced process shortcomings through differentiated technology paths, leveraging "design-manufacturing-packaging" integrated capabilities to compete for AI, data center, and other high-end markets, while consolidating customer cooperation through US policy benefits and localized supply chains. Despite facing challenges of high costs and yield optimization, Samsung, with group resource synergy and technology iteration resilience, is gradually narrowing the gap with leading players.

Looking ahead, as various technologies mature and implement, Samsung is expected to achieve breakthroughs in advanced packaging, this strategic high ground, reshaping the competitive landscape of the global semiconductor industry.