[News] Samsung Reportedly Secures Foundry Deal for IBM Power11 Using 7LPP EUV Process

According to Chosun Biz, sources say Samsung has secured a foundry contract with IBM, one of the top five players in the data center CPU market, to produce its next-generation Power11 chip. The chip will be manufactured on Samsung’s refined 7nm (7LPP) process, and in collaboration with IBM, the company will apply 2.5D ISC architecture packaging to further enhance performance.

As the report points out, Samsung’s 7LPP process is notable as the world’s first 7nm node to adopt EUV lithography, enabling finer and more precise circuit patterns. Compared with earlier generations, it delivers a 23% performance improvement while reducing power consumption by 45%, the report adds.

The report also notes that IBM’s forthcoming Power11 server chip is designed for high efficiency, offering 99.9999% uptime to allow system maintenance without interruptions. IBM emphasized that it represents the most resilient server chip ever developed under the Power platform.

Samsung is working to diversify its customer base by building orders on mature nodes with yields of 70–80% or higher, while continuing to refine its 5nm, 7nm, and 8nm processes through EUV lithography, according to the report.

As noted by Nate News, Samsung Electronics’ foundry division has recently been in talks not only with Tesla but also with Japan’s Nintendo and Chinese fabless companies on ASIC manufacturing, including AI chips. Notably, sources say more Chinese fabless firms are choosing Samsung’s 4nm, 8nm, and 14nm nodes, where the company has recently achieved stable yields.

While Samsung is strengthening its order pipeline, attention has also turned to whether NVIDIA’s $5 billion equity investment in Intel and their joint chip development could affect Samsung Foundry. Hankyung Korea Market reports that experts expect the collaboration to have only a limited impact in the short term on the global semiconductor industry, as the products will take time to reach the market and Intel’s foundry operations are excluded from the deal.

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(Photo credit: Samsung)