Samsung was the 2nd-largest logic chip R&D spender in 2020 behind Intel

Samsung gave up on creating custom CPU cores for its mobile division but the company hasn’t abandoned the idea of becoming the world’s largest chipmaker by 2030 and it hasn’t decreased its R&D expenditure. On the contrary, fresh reports from the local media reveal that Samsung has spent enough resources on logic chip R&D throughout 2020 to secure second place.

Samsung has reportedly spent $5.6 billion on researching and developing logic chips and related technologies last year. According to IC Insights cited by The Korea Herald, Samsung has increased its R&D spending by 19% year-on-year, and a large portion of its resources were directed towards developing new manufacturing processes including its 5nm and smaller nodes.

Samsung boosts R&D spending while Intel does the opposite

Samsung ranked second last year in terms of logic chip R&D expenditures and the tech giant was outperformed only by Intel. The US-based chipmaker has poured an estimated $12.9 billion into R&D last year (4% down compared to 2019) and has accounted for 19% of the industry’s total spending.

But while Intel has spent less, most other semiconductor companies besides Samsung have also upped their R&D expenditure last year. The top 10 semiconductor companies have increased their R&D spending in 2020 by 11% year-on-year, claims the report. In other words, Samsung is not the only semiconductor giant to have poured more resources into chip manufacturing last year and the competition is seemingly heating up.

This led to a 5% year-on-year increase in logic chip R&D spending from all firms combined. They’ve spent a total of $68.4 billion throughout 2020 and IC Insights expects semiconductor companies to bump this figure even higher — at roughly $71.4 billion — by the end of 2021.