Samsung Electronics is slated to hold a foundry forum in China later this month to attract Chinese fabless firms amid its growing idle foundry lines, industry experts said on Tuesday.

The world’s largest memory chip maker confirmed that it would hold the forum in Shanghai on Aug. 30 with the aim of diversifying its fabless clients that design chips and outsource the manufacturing to foundry firms.


At the event, around 100 Chinese firms including HiSilicon, Spreadtrum, Datang, ZTE and Rockchip and Taiwanese fabless firms such as MediaTek are expected to join, according to local news reports.

Experts said Samsung’s marketing push in China has been more aggressive recently because of its growing idle foundry lines.

“Samsung holding such forum in China is nothing new. Over the years, the tech giant has kept a low profile on luring Chinese firms considering its brand image, only making public high-profile clients Apple and Qualcomm,” Joo Dae-young, a senior analyst from Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade, told The Korea Herald.

He said the firm’s marketing strategy has been more aggressive recently because its idle foundry lines have been growing. Samsung’s continued development of chip technologies makes the older lines no longer fit for newer chip production.

Samsung’s moves to lure more fabless firms has also something to do with its chip client and device rival Apple. Although Samsung has grown its chip technology by supplying Apple, it has been losing orders to Taiwanese foundry firm TSMC since 2014. TSMC recently secured exclusive orders for iPhone 7’s processors although Samsung made a huge investment with Apple’s new orders in mind.

“Apple does not want to work with Samsung for its application processors in order not to disclose its core technology for new products to its device rival,” the analyst said.

An official from Samsung Electronics confirmed, ”The event has been held for years unofficially to diversify our clients,” although he denied to make any comment regarding Apple.

Samsung, however, may face difficulty in attracting clients in China because the government has recently shown a strong willingness to make chip technologies self-sufficient.

“Since the Chinese government has vowed to protect its chip industry both in fabless and foundry with a massive investment, Samsung may face tough competition in the nation,” said Lee Jae-yoon, an analyst from Yuanta Securities.

China, which consumes around 60 percent of the global chips, vowed in 2014 to invest around 178 trillion won ($159 billion) over the decade to boost its semiconductor industry.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)