Samsung Electronics has moved up its target date for exiting the 8-inch foundry business by one year to the end of 2029 and has been outsourcing some production to Taiwan's UMC, according to a foreign media report.
According to a report by Taiwanese IT outlet DigiTimes on the 12th (local time), Samsung Electronics aims to exit the 8-inch foundry business by the end of 2029. The outlet said this timeline is one year earlier than previously reported.
In the first sentence of its article, the outlet wrote, "Samsung Electronics aims to exit the 8-inch foundry business by the end of 2029, one year earlier than previously reported." The outlet included in both the headline and the first sentence that the target date and schedule for the exit had been moved up.
The outlet also reported on the production outsourcing. According to the outlet, Samsung Electronics has been outsourcing some production to Taiwan's UMC (United Microelectronics Corporation). The outlet described this as something that has already been under way. However, the scale of the outsourced volume, the products involved and when the outsourcing began do not appear in the published summary of the article.
The outlet used the word 'reportedly' in its headline. It presented the change in the exit schedule and the outsourcing as hearsay rather than confirmed fact. The published summary of the article contains no official position from Samsung Electronics or UMC.
The full text of the DigiTimes article is available only to paid subscribers. For this reason, specifics such as the background to the earlier exit schedule, how existing 8-inch production lines will be handled and whether outsourcing will expand cannot be determined from the report summary alone.
※ This article was written based on a report by Taiwan's DigiTimes on November 12 (local time).