Samsung has cut its foundry quotes to vie for new orders particularly for LCD driver ICs, power management ICs and CMOS image sensors, according to industry sources.

Samsung is also looking to snatch orders from its foundry rivals' second-tier customers by offering prices much lower than competitors, said the sources. Small- and medium-size fabless IC firms particularly those in China have become the target customers of Samsung's foundry business.

Samsung intends to bring in new customers to offset its loss of orders for Apple's A10 chips, the sources noted. Despite the loss of orders from Apple, Samsung has obtained 14nm and 10nm chip orders from Qualcomm, as well as orders from AMD and Nvidia, the sources said.

Samsung currently has three wafer fabs to provide foundry services – one 8-inch fab (S1) and two 12-inch fabs (S2 and S3). Monthly capacity at its 8-inch facility is estimated at about 190,000 units, while the combined 12-inch fab capacity reaches 135,000-140,000 units per month.