CAPEX Race: Samsung Pours $73 Billion into AI Chip Infrastructure

On March 19, 2026, Samsung Electronics officially took the technology war to a new financial level. The Korean giant announced an investment plan of 110 trillion won (about $73.24 billion) in R&D and manufacturing capacity for AI semiconductors for the current year alone.

This is a direct challenge to TSMC's monopoly. The capital will be directed towards accelerating the 2-nanometer process, expanding complex 3D chip packaging lines, and scaling the production of HBM4 memory (which we noted in yesterday's memorandum with AMD). Samsung is trying to offer the market a "one-stop shop"—the ability to order both the memory and the printing of the AI accelerator from a single contractor. The industry has turned into an ultra-high-stakes game where the entry ticket to maintain Tier-1 vendor status costs tens of billions of dollars.

Source: Reuters / Yonhap