Samsung Will Shut All Its 8-Inch Foundry Lines by the End of 2030

November 2 — According to Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, Samsung Electronics has decided to exit 8-inch wafer foundry entirely and has notified customers that it plans to shut all related production lines by the end of 2030.

Samsung had previously said only that it would gradually reduce 8-inch lines; this is the first explicit timetable for an exit. Afterwards the company plans to concentrate manpower and equipment investment on advanced 12-inch processes. Korean fabless companies that have long relied on Samsung now face pressure to find alternative producers.

Samsung’s 8-inch foundries run old processes — 65, 70, 90, 130 and 180 nanometres — making display driver chips (DDI), power management semiconductors (PMIC), microcontrollers (MCU) and image sensors. Mass production started with 180nm in 2000, followed by 130nm in 2002, 90nm in 2006 and 70nm in 2011.

An 8-inch wafer is a 200-millimetre silicon disc, and its processes sit mainly at 90 nanometres and above — the mature-node category. Such lines mainly make PMICs, display driver ICs, CMOS image sensors, MCUs, power devices, radio-frequency chips and fingerprint chips, serving the internet of things, automotive electronics, industrial control and consumer electronics.

Samsung’s 8-inch foundry capacity is all at its Giheung campus in Korea, originally across three lines: S6, S7 and S8. S7, with about 50,000 wafers a month, was already slated to close in the second half of 2026, with its orders moving to S6 and S8. Giheung’s S6 covers 0.13 to 0.35 micrometres and supports BCD processes, power devices and image sensors; S8 spans 0.18 to 0.5 micrometres and specialises in photoelectric sensors, high-voltage analogue circuits and discrete devices.

Even before the timetable, Samsung’s 8-inch business had been shrinking. In early 2026 it said it would speed up the restructuring, with S7 closing and monthly 8-inch capacity falling from about 250,000 wafers to under 200,000, and utilisation around 70%. As core products such as CMOS image sensors and display driver chips migrate to 12-inch lines, the 8-inch lines face lost orders, high maintenance costs and a limited customer base.

Korean fabless companies that have long used Samsung as a foundry are now under pressure to find alternative capacity. DB HiTek, a domestic pure-play 8-inch foundry, is seen as one option; its capacity had been fully booked with a clear order backlog. DB HiTek began multi-project wafer runs on silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) in December 2025, plans volume production in 2027, and is expanding cleanroom space at its Sangwoo campus in North Chungcheong, raising monthly capacity from 154,000 to 190,000 8-inch wafers.

Samsung is not alone in cutting 8-inch capacity. TSMC has been reducing such capacity since 2023, with some plants due to exit. TrendForce data show global 8-inch capacity is expected to fall 2.4% in 2026.

Notably, demand remains strong even as capacity shrinks. Driven by AI servers, demand for mature-node products such as power management ICs, analogue chips and power devices is growing; TrendForce expects average 8-inch utilisation to climb to 85–90% in 2026, with some foundries planning price increases of 5–20%. Global mature-node utilisation hit 91% in the third quarter of 2026, and the industry expects 8-inch and 12-inch mature-node foundry prices to rise 4–8% quarter on quarter in the first quarter of next year.

After exiting 8-inch foundry, Samsung plans to concentrate manpower and equipment investment on advanced 12-inch processes, mainly at Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek, covering 7nm, 4nm, 3nm and the ramping 2nm GAA process. Analysts estimate Samsung’s annual non-memory operating loss will narrow from 6.74 trillion won (about 33.6 billion yuan) in 2025 to about 3.92 trillion won (about 19.5 billion yuan) in 2026, with HBM4 lifting utilisation of 8nm-and-below advanced processes one major reason for the improvement.