Institutions: The continued price increase in wafer foundry marks a shift from a buyer's market, where customers compete, to a seller's market, where suppliers dominate pricing.

East Sea Securities stated on July 13 that the two global leaders in wafer foundry, TSMC and Samsung Electronics, have successively launched a new round of price adjustments, with the wave of price hikes spreading to downstream wafer foundry segments. TSMC has notified its core customers, including Nvidia, Apple, and AMD, that it plans to raise prices for 3nm, 5nm, and 7nm process nodes by 5-10%, covering more than 70% of its wafer foundry revenue. Samsung Electronics followed suit, increasing supply prices for new customers by about 15% for 4nm, 5nm advanced processes, and some automotive-grade 8nm processes. Unlike the previous practice of gradually lowering prices after yield rates stabilize, this round of price increases is primarily driven by the sustained surge in AI chip orders, which has led to long-term full utilization of advanced process capacity. In addition, the squeeze effect from HBM production capacity and rising R&D and equipment investment costs for next-generation process nodes such as 2nm further contribute to this trend. Market supply and demand, along with the allocation of investment costs, are replacing process maturity as the dominant factor in pricing. TSMC is leading the trend of adjusting node prices based on market conditions, while Samsung is focusing more on normalizing prices for nodes with concentrated demand. Although the two companies employ different strategies, both reflect a shift in the wafer foundry market from a "buyer’s market" competing for customers to a "seller’s market" dominated by supplier pricing.