Being among the largest contract makers of semiconductors and among leading developers of chips for various applications, Samsung Electronics wants to become the world’s leader in these industries. To do so, the company plans to invest a whopping KRW 133 trillion ($115 billion) in its Samsung LSI and Samsung Foundry businesses.

Samsung will invest $115 billion from now and through 2030, according to the approved plan for the next 12 years. KRW 73 trillion ($63.4 billion) will be invested in R&D in South Korea (which probably means chip R&D as well as process technologies R&D), whereas KRW 60 trillion ($52.1 billion) will be invested in production facilities and infrastructure used to make logic chips for various customers. On average, Samsung will invest roughly KRW 11 trillion ($9.51 billion) per year until the end of 2030.

Samsung's LSI & Foundry Investment Plan
  Investments Per Year Investments Through 2030
R&D ~$5.28 billion ~$63.4 billion
Production Infrastructure ~$4.34 billion ~$52.1 billion
Total ~$9.51 billion ~$115 billion
Note: Samsung reports its investment plans in KRW, we convert numbers to USD.

Last year Samsung spent $15.2 billion on R&D in total, so the commitment to spend $5.28 billion every year on semiconductors-related R&D alone seems very significant. In the meantime, spending $4.3 billion on average on expansion of production capacities per year seems rather moderate. For example, Samsung’s production line in Hwaseong (campus pictured below), which was architected for the EUV equipment from the start and which is set to be completed in 2019, will cost the company $4.615 billion.

R&D & CapEx of Intel, TSMC, and Samsung (LSI + Foundry)
  2018 2019 Upcoming Years
Intel $28.7 billion ? ?
TSMC (CapEx + R&D) $10.5 billion +
$2.848 billion
$10 ~ $11 billion + ? ~$10 - $12 billion + ?
Samsung ? $9.51 billion $9.51 billion
Note: TSMC only spends lion's share of its CapEx+R&D money on development of process technologies and expansion/upgrade of fabs.

Intel spends R&D+CapEx on CPUs/SoCs/memory development, on new process technologies, and on expansion/upgrade of fabs.

Samsung (LSI + Foundry) spends R&D+CapEx money on development of SoCs, new process technologies, and expansion/upgrade of fabs.

Samsung expects that its LSI and Foundry investment plan will create 15,000 additional jobs in R&D and chip production. To put the number into context, Samsung had around 320 thousand employees worldwide as of late 2017, so it is evident that the company is going to boost its workforce by 5% through late 2030 in semiconductor business alone.

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Source: Samsung

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  • HStewart - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    $115 sounds impressive at first - but look at it closely, this closes and it per year it pretty much the same as TMSC and Intel has done 3 times the investment last year alone.

    But Samsung makes a lot of products besides computer chips and curious if these are use for other products.
  • brakdoo - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    Anton at it again ;) Are they forcing you to write about stuff you don't understand?

    1. TSMC's R&D is not part of the 10.5 bn CapEx of last year. It's part of the OpEX as it is for most companies. (it's about 700 mn a quarter)
    2. So you are comparing Samsung's LSI + Foundry CapEx+R&D to TSMC's CapEX (just foundry) and Intel's CapEx+R&D of everything Intel does including networking, FPGAs, NAND+Optane, security R&D a.s.o.
  • brakdoo - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    + You can't just always add R&D and CapEx because CapEx and depreciation can be part of R&D expenses.

    One is on the statement of income the other is on the balance sheet....
  • brakdoo - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    OK, my first line wasn't really nice. Is there a way to change that?
  • Cellar Door - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    Yeah it comes from inside - make a conscious choice not to be a dick going forward.
  • Rictorhell - Thursday, April 25, 2019 - link

    Don't do it again, in the future, that would probably be enough to make amends.
  • p1esk - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    Anandtech had a call for authors not long ago, why don't you apply if you feel you can do a better job than him?
  • brakdoo - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    You really think a writer for AT makes good money?
  • SSTANIC - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    Well, in all these years that I've been following Anandtech, I don't think I've ever seen a comment more rude than this one.
  • Death666Angel - Thursday, April 25, 2019 - link

    Really? You should read the comment section more.

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