This week in its earnings call, Samsung announced that its foundry business has received a significant order for a two nanometer AI chips, marking a major win for its advanced fabrication technology. The unnamed customer has contracted Samsung to produce AI accelerators using its upcoming 2 nm process node, which promises significant gains in performance and efficiency over today's leading-edge chips. Along with the AI chips, the deal includes supporting HBM and advanced packaging - indicating a large-scale and complex project. Industry sources speculate the order may be from a major hyperscaler like Google, Microsoft, or Alibaba, who are aggressively expanding their AI capabilities. Competition for AI chip contracts has heated up as the field becomes crucial for data centers, autonomous vehicles, and other emerging applications. Samsung said demand recovery in 2023 across smartphones, PCs and enterprise hardware will fuel growth for its broader foundry business. It's forging ahead with 3 nm production while eyeing 2 nm for launch around 2025.

Compared to its 3 nm process, 2 nm aims to increase power efficiency by 25% and boost performance by 12% while reducing chip area by 5%. The new order provides validation for Samsung's billion-dollar investments in next-generation manufacturing. It also bolsters Samsung's position against Taiwan-based TSMC, which holds a large portion of the foundry market share. TSMC landed Apple as its first 2 nm customer, while Intel announced 5G infrastructure chip orders from Ericsson and Faraday Technology using its "Intel 18A" node. With rivals securing major customers, Samsung is aggressively pricing 2 nm to attract clients. Reports indicate Qualcomm may shift some flagship mobile chips to Samsung's foundry at the 2 nm node, so if the yields are good, the node has a great potential to attract customers.