TrendForce: Q2 global chip foundry revenue surged 14.6% QoQ to $41.7B, with TSMC securing a 70% market share, followed by Samsung with 7.2% and SMIC with 5.1%
Context & Ripple Effects
The Q2 reading extends a concentration trend already visible in TrendForce’s 2024 outlook for TSMC’s rising foundry share, rather than a broad rebalancing among the largest contract manufacturers.
It also follows a more uneven market phase: foundry revenue fell sequentially in Q1 2024 even as TSMC gained share. The latest figures pair renewed quarterly market growth with a much wider lead for the market leader.
First-order effects
- TSMC controls 70% of Q2 foundry revenue, giving it a substantially larger position than Samsung and SMIC in the reported market snapshot.
- The 14.6% sequential rise in global foundry revenue lifts the addressable revenue pool, but the reported share split directs most of that expansion to TSMC.
Second-order effects
- Samsung and SMIC face a larger relative-scale gap, increasing the commercial importance of winning customers that want qualified alternatives to TSMC.
- For chip designers, the concentration increases the value of alternative foundry capacity and process qualification, even when TSMC remains the primary manufacturing choice.
Third-order effects
- If this share pattern persists, leading-edge contract manufacturing becomes more concentrated around one supplier, making customers’ second-source strategies a more central part of product and supply planning.
- A concentrated market can make industry revenue cycles more dependent on TSMC’s utilization and pricing decisions; whether rivals narrow the gap will determine how durable that structure is.
The trend: The foundry industry is growing while revenue share is consolidating around TSMC, heightening the strategic premium on credible second-source manufacturing.