Samsung Electronics is ramping up its semiconductor foundry (contract manufacturing) engineering team in the U.S. to better serve major American tech companies. This move comes as the company’s foundry business reported a 1.5 trillion won (about $1.07 billion) loss in the first half of this year, with the gap widening against industry leader Taiwan’s TSMC.
According to industry sources on Nov. 10, Samsung posted a job listing on Nov. 6 for a senior manager of foundry customer engineering to work in Silicon Valley. The position offers a base salary of up to $282,900 (about 400 million won) and targets engineers with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering or physics and over 10 years of industry experience. The role involves close coordination with clients throughout the entire production process, from business development to product manufacturing.
Samsung has also been reinforcing its foundry sales efforts. Last month, the company hired a senior manager-level sales executive to scout for new clients in Silicon Valley and launched a recruitment drive for sales personnel in Germany, where many manufacturing firms are based. Despite global layoffs, Samsung is boosting its foundry division’s sales capacity. An industry insider said, “The opening of Samsung’s Taylor foundry plant in Texas has been delayed from the end of this year to two years later due to ongoing challenges. While there are calls to scale back the business, internally, the focus seems to be on adjusting the pace rather than abandoning it.”
Samsung holds an 11.5% share of the global foundry market as of the second quarter of this year, ranking second behind TSMC, which holds a 62.3% share. After years of losses and a widening gap with TSMC, there have been calls from outside to spin off or scale down the business. However, Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong recently dismissed such speculation, telling Reuters that the company “is not interested in spinning off the foundry business” and that “we are hungry for growth.”