Analyst jukan said Samsung Electronics’ foundry unit is expected to reach 100% capacity utilization in the second half of this year. According to Odaily, current utilization is estimated at 70% to 80%, and internal and external views at Samsung suggest the target is effectively certain because of order backlog and ongoing contract talks.

The unit has been running below 50% utilization since 2024, and sources said demand has improved for HBM base chips and advanced products centered on major U.S. Big Tech customers. According to Odaily, demand for 2nm orders from major cloud providers, AI clients, and high-performance computing customers is also expanding, while project discussions with Broadcom and other large clients continue.

Customer diversification is also advancing, with Qualcomm, AMD, and Google reportedly joining talks. Tesla is said to have assigned its next-generation chip order to 2nm production. Samsung said on its July 30 second-quarter earnings call that utilization improved across nodes year over year, and that 8nm and below had reached their highest level by focusing on high-growth products.

Samsung expects the number of 2nm project wins this year to more than double from last year. The company said it could not specify when profitability will return, but said it should happen soon. Analysts expect the non-memory businesses, including foundry and System LSI, to turn profitable as early as the third quarter and as late as the fourth quarter.