Samsung Electronics' goal of becoming the No. 1 foundry by 2030 faces huge hurdles, as TSMC plans to invest $44 billion in 2022 to consolidate its leading position, of which $42.1 billion will be invested in foundry, more than Samsung Electronics. The total investment in memory, foundry and infrastructure last year was more than $33.5 billion.

According to the "Korea Herald" report, 2022 will be the first year that Samsung Electronics is surpassed by TSMC in the field of chip investment. The former's capital expenditure this year is about 37.9 billion US dollars, but the capital expenditure in 2020 and 2021 reached 277 US$33.7 billion and US$33.7 billion, greatly exceeding TSMC's US$15.5 billion and US$30 billion in the same period.

The report pointed out that this means that the uncertainty of its desire to replace TSMC's founding leader position will further increase. "Since the foundry business requires huge investment, it is difficult for Samsung Electronics to catch up with TSMC under the current business structure."

Behind TSMC's large-scale chip investment is its amazing performance in 2021. Last year, TSMC's revenue rose 24.9% year-on-year to $56.8 billion, while operating profit rose 40.9% to $23.2 billion, almost 90% of Samsung Electronics' overall chip business' $25.6 billion operating profit.

As TSMC increases chip investment, the gap with Samsung Electronics is expected to widen further. According to TrendForce, in the third quarter of last year, TSMC had a 53.1% share of the global foundry semiconductor market, followed by Samsung Electronics with 17.1%.

Knowing that it cannot surpass TSMC in terms of scale, Samsung Electronics is making every effort to lead in technology, with the goal of mass-producing 3nm chips in the first half of this year. This is at least a month ahead of TSMC's mass production plan (in the second half of the year).