Samsung Foundry Projected to Narrow 2026 Operating Losses Driven by HBM4 Demand
Samsung Electronics' combined Foundry and System LSI divisions are projected to narrow their operating losses by 41.8% in 2026, dropping from 6.74 trillion won to 3.92 trillion won. This financial recovery is primarily driven by surging demand for 4nm base dies used in next-generation HBM4 memory stacks. As AI hardware demands dramatically higher bandwidth, HBM4's transition to advanced logic nodes gives semiconductor makers with integrated foundry capacity a key structural advantage. This surged demand has allowed Samsung to increase 4nm wafer contract prices by 10% to 15% and secure major long-term customer partnerships. HBM4 is expected to account for over 60% of Samsung's total HBM revenue in the second half of the year, with HBM4 revenue growing over 300% quarter-over-quarter in Q3. Additionally, Samsung signed a strategic agreement with Broadcom running through 2030 and secured 2nm project designs from major cloud service providers.
## BACKGROUND
High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is a 3D-stacked DRAM architecture designed to relieve memory bandwidth bottlenecks in AI accelerators and GPUs. Unlike earlier generations that used standard DRAM processes for the bottom base die, HBM4 adopts advanced logic nodes like 4nm for its base die to handle complex data routing and signal control.