Samsung expects the number of customers using its foundry services to quadruple by 2029, according to a report by The Korea Times.

The projection sets a concrete benchmark for the contract chipmaking arm of the South Korean technology group: a fourfold expansion of its customer base over a five-year horizon. Samsung has not specified the exact current customer count, but the target signals an aggressive push to win additional external clients for its semiconductor fabrication plants.

Why does the customer count matter?

Foundry revenue scales directly with the number of design firms that commit wafer orders to a manufacturer. Samsung Foundry competes against Taiwan's TSMC, the global market leader, and a growing customer list is a standard measure of competitive traction in contract chipmaking.

A fourfold increase by 2029 would mark a substantial shift for the division, which has historically lagged its Taiwanese rival in external orders despite Samsung's position as one of the world's largest semiconductor producers overall.

What is Samsung's foundry position?

Samsung operates one of the world's two leading logic-chip fabrication businesses. Its foundry arm manufactures processors and other chips for external customers, separately from the semiconductors Samsung designs in-house.

The company's roadmap targets advanced process nodes, the cutting-edge manufacturing technologies that determine transistor density, power consumption and performance of finished chips. Winning customers at these nodes has been the central competitive battleground with TSMC in recent years.

What does the 2029 timeline imply?

The five-year window aligns with standard semiconductor industry planning cycles. Design wins secured today typically translate into volume production several years later, as customers qualify their chips on a manufacturer's process technology before committing to mass fabrication.

By setting a 2029 deadline, Samsung is effectively forecasting that customer qualification activity underway now and in the coming years will convert into an expanded production base by the end of the decade.

Who reported the figure?

The Korea Times published the projection, attributing it to Samsung's own expectations for the foundry business. The report frames the target as the company's forward-looking assessment of customer growth through 2029.

Further detail on which customers, process nodes or regional markets will drive the expansion was not specified in the report.