TCL CSOT announced it has started moving production equipment into its t8 factory in Guangzhou, China. Feng Zhang, Senior Vice President of TCL CSOT said "The move-in of the first piece of core production equipment marks the t8 project's transition to the equipment installation and commissioning phase". The fab is an 8.6-generation inkjet-printed OLED production line, with mass production scheduled for Q4 2027. Construction started on September 16, 2025, and in less than a year (226 days), the main factory structure was completed. The project has a total investment of approximately RMB 29.5 billion (around $4.42 billion).

When completed, TCL CSOT's t8 fab will process around 22,500 glass substrates monthly. Each substrate measures 2,290 x 2,620 mm, the kind used for manufacturing medium to large-sized OLED panels. For the start, production will focus on displays for tablets, notebooks, and monitors. Also, TCL CSOT explores inkjet-printed OLED technology potential for flexible and foldable panels.

Samsung has reportedly booked the entire planned output of its second fab in Taylor, Texas, and most of it is going to AMD. According to an exclusive from Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper, citing industry sources, Taylor Fab 2 will make HBM base dies for AMD and NVIDIA on a 2 nm process, with AMD's orders making up the bulk of it. Apparently, AMD's volume alone is enough to stretch the fab's capacity. Samsung declined to comment, saying it can't confirm customer-related details.

These aren't AMD's CPUs or GPUs, though. The base die is the logic chip at the bottom of an HBM stack, and Samsung plans to pair the Texas-made dies with DRAM produced in South Korea and ship them as finished HBM. Its current HBM4 and the sampled HBM4E use 4 nm base dies, so 2 nm or smaller seems aimed at later HBM generations. The deal also follows Lisa Su's visit to Samsung in October, where Samsung reportedly wanted foundry orders from AMD in return for the HBM that AMD urgently needs. A March MOU had already made Samsung the primary HBM4 supplier for the Instinct MI455X.

AMD looks set to bring in more quarterly revenue than Intel for what appears to be the first time ever. Alongside its record Q3 2026 results, AMD guided Q4 revenue to approximately $17 billion, plus or minus 3%, or roughly $16.5 billion to $17.5 billion. Intel, on the other hand, expects Q4 revenue between $15 billion and $16 billion. Even the bottom of AMD's range sits above the top of Intel's, so unless either company misses its guidance badly, the flip is pretty much locked in.

Most of AMD's growth comes from the data center. AMD's Data Center segment hit a record $8.5 billion in Q3, up 97% year over year, on strong EPYC demand and the launch of the Instinct MI450 Series GPUs inside its Helios racks. AMD expects the segment to grow about 50% sequentially in Q4, while Client and Gaming is expected to drop by more than 20%. Intel's Q4 outlook, meanwhile, came in well below expectations, partly due to a two-week shutdown at Fab 28 in Israel that Intel says will cost about $300 million in Q4 revenue.

Late last month, we learned that SK hynix-owned NAND Flash maker Solidigm has been considering expanding its manufacturing business to the United States. According to Bloomberg, the company is contemplating a massive $45 billion investment. However, before deciding on that, Solidigm aims to get approval from the U.S. government to send equipment to its fabs in Dalian, China, so it can continue funding expansion in the United States. As a reminder, obtaining some chipmaking equipment in China requires U.S. government approval, meaning the company is putting things on hold pending regulatory approval.

Currently, Solidigm operates Fab 1 in Dalian, China, and has accelerated the construction of Fab 2 nearby. This expansion aims to increase production by 50% by 2027 to meet the rising demand for NAND Flash. Solidigm owns and operates this facility, marking a resumption of expansion in mainland China after a four-year project freeze. At present, Solidigm produces about 100,000 wafers per month of NAND Flash, so a 50% increase by 2027 would boost production to approximately 150,000 wafers per month.

Intel has begun installing equipment at Fab 62 within its Ocotillo campus in Chandler, Arizona. In a somewhat unusual move, Intel confirmed its current status and plans, a change from the company's typical practice of keeping such information deliberately vague. According to Intel officials, construction and equipment installation are currently underway, with production projected to begin by the end of 2028. Naga Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice President of Intel Foundry and Chief Technology and Operations Officer, stated: "Today, I am pleased to share that construction and tool installation at Fab 62 are now fully underway, and we expect operations to begin by the end of 2028. We're also making progress in Ohio, where the first major structural truss has been installed on the first fab in New Albany." Reaching this stage for Fab 62 comes more than a year after Intel had Fab 52 at full production capacity.

Fab 62 could support 18A, 18A-P, and 14A process nodes, however, the company has not confirmed which ones. The next-door Fab 52 already manufactures chips on the 18A node. We can presume that the new facility could either expand existing capacity or support the next-generation 14A process. Fab 52 currently manufactures Panther Lake processors and Clearwater Forest server CPUs using the 18A process.

Samsung will reportedly break ground on its second chip fab in Taylor, Texas, this November, with mass production targeted for 2030. DigiTimes, citing South Korea's The Guru, reports that Taylor Fab 2 will span roughly 2.7 million square feet. Samsung also appears to have confirmed the timing at an October 15 event near the site, where Jonathan Taylor of Samsung Austin Semiconductor said construction should start early next month and that Fab 2 will be "one and a half times bigger than Fab One." In July, Samsung admitted that its leading-edge capacity was lagging customer demand, while inquiries for its 1.4 nm process, a node it was reportedly considering shelving last year, kept climbing. The process for Fab 2 hasn't been disclosed yet.

The first Taylor fab, which has slipped well past its original 2024 target, seems to be on track this time. Installed tools have started running processes as the plant goes through staged qualification. Fab 1 uses EUV lithography for Samsung's 2 nm process, with operations planned by the end of 2026 and volume production in 2027. Its best-known customer is Tesla, which signed a $16.5 billion deal running through 2033 that covers the AI6 chip, and Samsung is also set to build Tesla's AI5 on 2 nm in Texas. How orders will be split between the two fabs is unknown. Samsung plans to invest over $37 billion across Central Texas, backed by up to $4.745 billion in CHIPS Act funding. Given how long Fab 1 took, it's reasonable to expect that the 2030 target will depend heavily on demand.

GlobalFoundries announced that it has been selected to provide the technology and to operate two planned semiconductor fabs at its Malta, New York, site. This is not a direct investment from GF but rather came as a new U.S.-Japan initiative involving up to $21 billion in funding. The first 300 mm fab will be funded with an initial investment of around $10 billion. GF expects to break ground later this year, with production planned to begin in 2029. In a second phase, another fab is planned with another $10 billion investment at a later date. When fully operational, each fab will produce around 900,000 wafers annually. GF expects to reach baseline capacity around 2031-2032 for the first fab, and projects 2033 for the second one. The expansion comes as the company seeks new opportunities in advanced packaging and semiconductor manufacturing. In April, AMD announced plans to work with GF on co-packaged optics (CPO) for its next-generation Instinct MI500 AI accelerators, scheduled for 2027. The company is also preparing to bring its 7 nm-class FDX Fusion technology into mass production at its Dresden, Germany, facility in 2028.

Separately, GF has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce to amend its CHIPS and Science Act award, reallocating $955 million to accelerate investments in silicon photonics, silicon-germanium (SiGe), and advanced packaging at its facilities in Malta, New York, and Burlington, Vermont. Under a separate agreement, the U.S. government will receive an approximately 4% equity stake. In 2025, GlobalFoundries ranked fifth among the world's top ten foundries, behind TSMC, Samsung, SMIC, and UMC.

Global 300 mm front-end fab equipment spending is projected to reach $149 billion in 2026, up 31% year-over-year, SEMI reported today in its latest 300 mm Fab Outlook. Investment is expected to continue growing at double-digit rates through 2029, reaching $227 billion. The stronger investment trajectory is accompanied by a sustained pipeline of new 300 mm fabs and production lines moving through construction and into operation. Excluding pure R&D fabs, SEMI projects 20 new 300 mm fabs or lines to begin construction worldwide in 2026 and 18 in 2027. In the United States, three are projected to begin construction in 2026 and four in 2027.

Ajit Manocha, SEMI President and CEO"Semiconductor demand is increasingly translating into physical manufacturing expansion across the global industry," "The latest outlook points to both stronger equipment investment and a substantial pipeline of fabs moving toward operation. This expansion will provide the manufacturing foundation needed to support AI, high-performance computing and a broad range of next-generation semiconductor applications."

SemiAnalysis has published a teardown of Intel's Panther Lake (Core Ultra 7 365), offering a rare look at 18A inside a shipping chip. Intel's 18A node brings advanced manufacturing technologies such as rear-side power delivery and a new transistor design, so its success is vital for the Foundry. The firm found the 18A compute logic to be similar in density to the TSMC N3E logic used in the 12-core Xe3 GPU tile. It also puts 18A about 18.6% denser than the Intel 3 GPU logic, using a representative-cell model. However, SemiAnalysis says 18A does not lead TSMC N3P, N2, or Samsung SF2 in peak density. It further cautions that whole-die density depends on cell mix and placement.

Panther Lake is Intel's first chip with RibbonFET gate-all-around transistors, and the first commercial implementation of PowerVia backside power delivery. SemiAnalysis counted four stacked ribbons per transistor, compared to three sheets on Samsung's SF2. Moreover, the Cougar Cove P-core takes roughly the same area as Lunar Lake's Lion Cove, even though L2 grew from 2.5 MiB to 3 MiB. Panther Lake's NPU 5 reportedly requires 36.9% less chip area than Lunar Lake's NPU 4, though the number of INT8 MAC units remains the same. SemiAnalysis describes the CPU cores as incremental updates.

SK hynix subsidiary Solidigm is reportedly planning to open its first NAND Flash manufacturing facility in the United States. To address global supply chain challenges, SK hynix is exploring ways to expand its production capabilities worldwide and create a more resilient operation against geopolitical events. Currently, Solidigm operates in the United States with its headquarters and R&D center, while all its manufacturing is based outside the country. When SK hynix acquired Intel's NAND Flash manufacturing business in 2021 and established the Solidigm brand, the company continued manufacturing in China without expanding overseas.

At present, Solidigm operates Fab 1 in Dalian, China, and has accelerated the construction of Fab 2 nearby. This expansion aims to increase production by 50% by 2027 to meet the rising demand for NAND Flash. Solidigm owns and operates this facility, marking a resumption of expansion in mainland China after a four-year project freeze.

Tesla, SpaceX, and SpaceXAI have taken a trademark dispute over the "Terafab" name to federal court, PCMag reports. The declaratory judgment action was filed on September 15 in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas. It asks a judge to rule that Terafab does not infringe the "Tera-Fab" mark of Illinois nanotechnology firm Tera-print, which covers a desktop photolithography system used by researchers. Tera-print sent a cease-and-desist letter on May 23, days after Tesla filed its own Terafab trademark applications on May 18. Six settlement meetings between June and August apparently went nowhere, and Tera-print says it will defend its rights.

Nothing has been decided yet, and the claims are each side's own. Tesla and SpaceX point to a separate Tera-print application filed on May 22 that seeks coverage for semiconductor-related goods, and they call the timing opportunistic. That is their characterization, not a court finding. Tesla and SpaceX also argue the two operate in different product spheres and that confusion is unlikely. Musk announced Terafab in March as a chip factory for AI compute. Intel joined the project in April, though its exact role is unclear. Filings in May pointed to costs up to $119 billion across all phases, and in August the companies confirmed a Grimes County, Texas site with a $16.8 billion first phase.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, announced today that it has commenced site preparation and other related work for the construction of Fab3, a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at the Kitakami Plant in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, to expand production capacity for advanced three-dimensional flash memory BiCS FLASH. Fab3 will be constructed on land south of Fab2, targeting operations to commence in fiscal 2029.

The flash memory market is expected to continue to expand significantly in the medium to long term, driven by agentic AI, physical AI, and on-device AI. Through the construction of Fab3, Kioxia aims to meet rising market demand by expanding production and ensuring stable supply of cutting-edge flash memory products.

According to the latest report from Chosun, the United States government is reportedly in talks with the government of South Korea to secure major investment in domestic memory production on American soil, as pressure on the supply chain continues to grow. Since the majority of the world's DRAM production occurs in South Korea by companies such as SK hynix and Samsung, the U.S. government, during the Trump administration, is negotiating with South Korean officials to encourage more South Korean memory makers to invest in American DRAM fabs, which would significantly improve the supply chain situation.

There has reportedly been dissatisfaction with the level of Korean companies' investment in the U.S. and the delays these companies are causing despite promised expansions. However, the new strategic investment would be separate from the already-promised $350 billion expansion in the U.S. that was agreed upon by both parties last year. This would represent a new buildout, also worth billions of U.S. dollars. A new investment package is expected to be announced sometime in September, which is just days away, meaning we will soon see how South Korean memory makers plan to structure their U.S. investments.

Nanya Technology Board of Directors announced on August 5 that the company has launched its largest investment program, committing up to NT$346.6 billion (around $10.7 billion) to its Fab5A facility through 2026-2029. The project covers 10 nm-class processes from 1b through 1e nodes and introduces EUV lithography. Nanya has also increased its 2026 capital expenditures budget by 34% to NT$69.7 billion (around $2.16 billion). The extra NT$17.7 billion is going toward advance payments for equipment to keep Fab5A on schedule. The production roadmap has wafer starts being produced in the second half of 2027, reaching 30,000 wafers per month in 2028 and 35,900 in 2029. The maximum planned capacity is around 45,000 wafers monthly. The 1c pilot production has already begun, while the 1d node is under development and expected to enter pilot production soon. Nanya Fab5A investment, when completed, is estimated at roughly $16 billion, deployed in phases based on market demand.

Commercially, Nanya is having a strong run. July revenue hit NT$43.87 billion (around $1.3 billion), up 49.3% month over month and 719.6% year over year, driven by continued DRAM price increases, particularly sharp gains in DDR4 contract prices. Remember that just a year ago DDR4 module prices overtook DDR5 for the first time, with Nanya among the biggest beneficiaries. Its customers include giants like NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, with the future looking great for the Taiwanese company. Its long-term agreements reportedly now cover about 50% of production capacity, with short-term contracts gradually converted into long-term agreements.

TSMC's 1.4 nm fab for its A14 node is currently under construction, and according to Taiwan's Commercial Times, the project is expected to be completed by April 2027. This is an impressive timeline for TSMC, which began construction of Taichung Phase II in the expansion area of the Central Taiwan Science Park. If everything goes according to plan, this will allow TSMC to scale the A14 node and start trial production late next year, with mass production set to commence in the middle of 2028. These timelines are progressing much faster than TSMC initially expected, and the company can thank modern technology for this acceleration.

Reportedly, TSMC is using artificial intelligence and virtual reality to aid in the fab's development. AI is being used for image recognition and smart inspection, while VR simulations assist with training for high-altitude work and potential hazard situations. This rapid training, construction aid, and everything combined are enabling TSMC to deliver the fab ahead of the company's internal schedules, allowing the A14 node to scale from zero to initial trial production by the end of 2027.

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a phased expansion plan to meet growing customer demand. The company will immediately expand cleanroom capacity in Singapore and simultaneously begin construction of a new fab building shell at its flagship Tainan campus in Taiwan.

This dual-track approach is designed to meet near-term customer demand while establishing the structural footprint required to capture future high-growth AI and edge-computing applications. The strategy dramatically reduces future capacity lead times while keeping near-term capital expenditure tightly aligned with secured, long-term customer commitments.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has come out with unusually direct comments on memory pricing, calling current semiconductor prices "abnormally high" and warning that the situation risks creating what he termed "chipflation", where rising chip costs push up finished product prices for consumers. Speaking at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Summer Forum in Jeju on July 15, Chey argued that supply needs to increase even if it means lower margins for semiconductor companies. His reasoning: AI companies can absorb higher costs, but PC and smartphone makers have a limited ability to pass those costs on to individual consumers. If prices keep climbing, the market shrinks and new players move in, an outcome he sees as bad for the South Korean semiconductor industry in the long term. The struggle is real, as is the threat from new competitors, as shortages at Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron have forced major PC OEMs to lock in DRAM supply deals with the Chinese memory producer CXMT.

On the supply side, the picture doesn't look like it's getting better soon. Chey predicted AI semiconductor demand could surge 60-100% next year, while production from major suppliers will not increase significantly. Since AI-related demand now accounts for over half the total semiconductor market, he expects overall demand to rise by at least 50-60% against a supply that is not keeping pace. "No company is significantly increasing supply next year; it's so dire I don't know if I should describe it as chaotic," he said. According to The Chosun Daily, Chey confirmed that SK hynix is looking at building a semiconductor factory in the United States. These plans could significantly expand SK hynix's US footprint. The company is already investing approximately $4 billion to build advanced packaging R&D facilities and HBM production lines in West Lafayette, Indiana. Construction began in 2026 and the site is scheduled to be operational by the second half of 2028. However, he also said that the company is currently looking for possible locations globally, prioritizing sites based on speed, scale and feasibility. No specific location or timeline was given.

Following record second-quarter earnings, TSMC has confirmed one of its most ambitious expansion plans in the United States. Earlier this year, TSMC was reportedly preparing a $100 billion investment package to add four more fabs to its Arizona facility. Now, it seems the decision has been finalized, and TSMC is increasing its investment in the Arizona facilities. Approximately $165 billion has already been invested in Arizona, and the additional $100 billion will make this one of the largest external investments in the U.S. Interestingly, TSMC is not alone in this investment round. Its supply chain partners are expected to contribute about $30 billion of the $100 billion total. This means many more players are gathering funds to establish new supply chain independence.

In January, TSMC reportedly purchased an additional 900 acres of land directly across the highway from the existing site north of Phoenix, preparing to expand its campus. This extra production capacity will be supported by an estimated $100 billion of additional funding that TSMC is willing to invest in the U.S., despite also making simultaneous investments back home in Taiwan.

Micron has broken ground on a ¥1.5 trillion ($9.3 billion) factory expansion in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, with equipment installation scheduled for the second half of 2028 confirming the previous reports of a new HBM plant in Japan. The Japanese government is contributing up to ¥500 billion ($3 billion), bringing its total support for Micron to around ¥775 billion ($4.7 billion) to date. For the moment, Micron remains the only overseas DRAM manufacturer left on Japanese soil making it a point of strategic importance for Tokyo. The Hiroshima facility has a history with Micron. This is where the company produced its very first HBM wafer, while the site was acquired when it bought the bankrupt Japanese DRAM maker Elpida Memory back in 2013. The fab expansion will focus on advanced memory including HBM with around 80% of the required materials already sourced locally in Japan. The company is also building two leading-edge fabs in Boise, US, and broke ground earlier this year on a $100 billion production site near Syracuse, New York.

Separately, Micron and Ford announced today a long-term supply agreement covering memory and storage solutions for Ford's next-generation vehicle production. Micron is expanding automotive memory output and pointing to its Manassas, Virginia fab as part of the localized supply chain backing the deal.

Worldwide 300 mm fab equipment investment in the memory sector is projected to surpass $50 billion for the first time in 2026, rising 29% to $52 billion before increasing another 11% to $57 billion in 2027, SEMI reported today in its latest 300 mm Fab Outlook. The growth reflects continued AI-driven demand for advanced memory, supported by rising investment in AI infrastructure, data centers, and next-generation computing systems.

Looking further out, global 300 mm fab equipment spending in the memory sector is expected to grow at a 19% CAGR from 2024 to 2029. Worldwide 300 mm memory capacity is also projected to increase, reaching 4.1 million wafers per month in 2026 and 4.2 million wafers per month in 2027.

According to Economic Daily News, TSMC is overhauling Fab 15A in Central Taiwan Science Park, transitioning it from 28/22 nm to 4 nm production. Old equipment is being cleared out and replaced with new tooling, and the total bill (cleanrooms and machinery included) is expected to top NT$100 billion (US$3.16 billion). The displaced 28/22 nm tools aren't going to waste either, heading to TSMC facility in Dresden, Germany, which is ramping toward mass production in 2027 on mature nodes aimed at the automotive and industrial market. Fab 15B stays on 7 nm for now. Further up the process roadmap, TSMC's 1.4 nm fab at the Phase 2 Central Taiwan site in Taichung is coming together faster than planned. Groundwork is mostly completed and construction bidding is expected to start shortly. If things keep moving at this pace, trial production could start as early as Q3 2027, with full mass production following in the second half of 2028.

There are also talks of 1 nm arriving at the Central Taiwan site earlier than previously expected. Worth noting that 1.4 nm isn't part of TSMC's US fab plans at all. Once all four Phase 2 fabs are running at capacity, the Taichung complex is expected to be the single largest production base for AI and HPC chips anywhere in the world. In April, TSMC introduced its A13 (1.3 nm) process at the 2026 North America Technology Symposium as a direct shrink of the previously announced A14 (1.4 nm) node. The new node offers around 6% area reduction, along with improved performance and power efficiency through design-technology co-optimization. The A13 node remains fully backward compatible with A14 design rules to allow easier migration. TSMC A13 node is expected to enter mass production in 2029, one year after A14.

YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp) is planning to significantly expand its manufacturing capacity, with Reuters reporting the Chinese NAND flash maker intends to build two additional factories on top of one already nearing completion. When all three are running at full capacity, YMTC's total output would more than double from its current 200,000 wafers per month to 400,000 wafers per month (each new plant is designed for 100,000 wafers monthly). The third fab, located in Wuhan alongside the existing two plants, has already been built and is currently being equipped. The fab is expected to start operations later this year and reach 50,000 wafers per month by 2027. Notably, over half of the equipment has been sourced domestically, including tooling for vertical layer stacking, a sign of how much YMTC has leaned into local suppliers since the US added it to the Entity List in December 2022. However, recently, the U.S. Government's Bureau of Industry and Security reportedly removed YMTC from the list of restricted Chinese companies.

The two planned factories don't yet have confirmed locations or target dates, but all three new plants will reportedly allocate some capacity to DRAM production alongside NAND. YMTC has already sent LPDDR samples to clients and expects feedback by year-end, which will shape how aggressively it pursues DRAM going forward. On the NAND side, YMTC already holds 11.8% of the global market, on par with Sandisk and not far behind SK Hynix (16%), Kioxia (15.9%), and Micron (13.3%), while Samsung leads at 30.4%. UBS expects the YMTC shares to pass 14% by early 2027. The company is pushing its Xtacking 4.0 architecture, which is considered competitive with what the industry leaders are shipping.

Worldwide 300 mm fab equipment spending is expected to increase 18% to $133 billion in 2026 and 14% to $151 billion in 2027, SEMI reported today in its latest 300 mm Fab Outlook. This strong growth reflects surging AI chip demand for data centers and edge devices, as well as the growing commitment to semiconductor self-sufficiency across key regions through localized industrial ecosystems and supply chain restructuring. Looking further out, the report projects investment will continue to increase 3% to $155 billion in 2028 and another 11% to $172 billion in 2029, respectively.

"AI is resetting the scale of semiconductor manufacturing investment," said Ajit Manocha, President and CEO of SEMI. "With global 300 mm fab equipment spending projected to exceed $150 billion in 2027 for the first time, the industry is making historic, sustained commitments to the advanced capacity and resilient supply chains needed to power the AI era."

Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) and Apollo (NYSE: APO) today announced a definitive agreement for Intel to repurchase the 49% equity interest in the joint venture related to Intel's Fab 34 in Ireland not held by Intel for $14.2 billion. The agreement reflects Intel's continued business momentum underpinned by the growing and essential role CPUs play in the era of AI, a significantly strengthened balance sheet and the strong partnership between Intel and Apollo.

In 2024, Apollo-managed funds and affiliates led an $11.2 billion investment to acquire a 49% equity interest in a joint venture entity related to Fab 34, providing Intel with equity-like capital while preserving balance sheet strength. This transaction provided Intel with significant financial flexibility and enabled the company to unlock and redeploy capital to advance its strategic priorities including accelerating the buildout of Intel 4 and Intel 3, the most advanced processes manufactured in Europe, and of Intel 18A, the most advanced process developed and manufactured in the U.S. today.

Samsung is officially ending the production of its 2D NAND flash storage this year, and the company will be repurposing its old production lines to better fit the AI-driven demand. According to The Elec Korea, Samsung plans to officially stop 2D NAND production at its Hwaseong site, with Line 12 being the one carrying this aging technology. Instead of completely abandoning this facility, which houses plenty of chip-making tools, Samsung will repurpose them for DRAM metallization, which is the process of applying actual pathways within the DRAM itself to connect memory cells. Interestingly, the Hwaseong Line 12 holds a monthly wafer production capacity of 80,000 to 100,000 12-inch wafers. This is a significant number of wafers, which are now only used for 2D NAND Flash, a technology that is no longer needed in the wake of 3D NAND Flash technology.

Continuing the Line 12 legacy will be Samsung's 6th-generation 10 nm-class 1c DRAM, a technology used for HBM4, and Samsung expects the total wafer capacity for 1c DRAM to reach about 200,000 wafers per month in the second half of the year. Adapting the old 2D NAND Flash production site will definitely help, and Samsung will run this production along with Pyeongtaek Line 3 and Line 4.