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ZDNet Korea reports Samsung ordered tools for 6,000 more 2nm wafers a month at its Taylor fab, filling Fab 1 to 20,000 in H2 2027. Samsung has not confirmed.
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Samsung's Taylor fab site in Texas, in a construction-stage photo from the company's press kit. Samsung has not confirmed the reported 2nm tool order.
Image: Samsung
Source · Press image from the Samsung newsroom, used for news reporting.
Samsung Electronics has ordered equipment for about 6,000 more 2nm wafers per month at its first Taylor fab in Texas, ZDNet Korea reported on Oct. 23, which would bring the plant to 20,000 wafers per month in the second half of 2027.
ZDNet Korea reports 20,000 wafers per month as Taylor Fab 1's total 2nm capacity in H2 2027; Samsung has not confirmed.
Illustration (AI-generated)
The outlet cited an industry source and said the order covers tools for Taylor Fab 1, the company's first US foundry production line. Samsung has not confirmed the order. According to ZDNet Korea, Samsung has spent on 10,000 wafers per month of capacity for the fab since the end of last year. Adding that to the pilot line built early in the project gives the 20,000-wafer total, the outlet said. The source told ZDNet Korea that Samsung started placing the new orders so tools can arrive from the end of this year, with shipments rising as early as the second half of next year.
ZDNet Korea says 20,000 wafers per month is the fab's maximum design capacity. This round of tool buying therefore fills the remaining idle space in the building, and the outlet describes it as the closing step of core equipment spending for Fab 1. Further capacity at Taylor would depend on the second fab.
For AI hardware buyers, the point is where leading-edge logic can be built: 2nm is an advanced process that only a few companies, among them Samsung, TSMC and Intel, can mass-produce, according to ZDNet Korea, and Taylor would be Samsung's US source of it. The report names Tesla as one of the main customers. Voltgrid has not seen a Samsung statement on customer volumes for the fab, so the split of the 20,000 wafers by customer is unknown.
ZDNet Korea also said Samsung plans to start construction on a second Taylor fab by the end of this year, with operation targeted for 2030. It reported that Samsung is asking several equipment suppliers to complete stability certification for their tools early, ahead of equipment orders for that building.
The initial investment in the Taylor site was $17 billion, or about 23.7 trillion won, according to ZDNet Korea. Samsung decided on the site in 2021.
The Taylor order follows other 2nm moves at Samsung. As Voltgrid reported, the company is shifting its M2800 modem to 2nm, which frees 4nm capacity for HBM base dies.
Several points remain open. Samsung has not publicly confirmed the equipment order, the 6,000-wafer figure or the 20,000-wafer target. The report gives no date for when Fab 1 reaches that output, only that capacity could be in place in the second half of 2027, and it does not say what share of tools is already installed. Whether yields at Taylor will support commercial volume is not addressed. Watch for a Samsung statement and for the Fab 2 groundbreaking, which the report places before the end of the year.
