Samsung plans to invest at least $18 billion in two new chip factories in South Korea. The electronics giant today also announced that the first chips came out of its factory in the city of Pyeongtaek which already costed the company $13.6 billion. The new fab will focus on the production of Samsung’s fourth-generation 64 layer V-NAND.
Samsung has stated that investments in the factory will be doubled between now and 2021. In Pyeongtaek, Samsung manufacturers memory chips that have been very high in demand due to e.g. smartphones.
In another South Korean City, Hwaseong, Samsung invests about $5 billion in a new chip factory that uses 'extreme ultraviolet lithography' (EUVL). This technology is used in the next generation computer chips. Samsung hopes that by 2019 mass production of EUVL based chips will start.
Although Samsung is best known for its smartphones, tablets and TVs, the company mainly makes money from its chip manufacturing. In the first quarter of 2017 this made up about 75% of its profits.
