mwb research:
Reports of Samsung Electronics installing Aixtron. AlphaBIZ, a South Korean news outlet that seems to be reliable, reported this week that Samsung Electronics has taken the next small step to enter the GaN foundry market with the installation of one to two of Aixtron's latest MOCVD systems (presumably the G10-GaN). The systems were installed in the second quarter 2024 at Samsung's Giheung facility, which is responsible for the mass production of 8-inch foundry products.
Samsung had announced GaN plans in 2023. At the Samsung Foundry Forum in 2023, the company announced plans to launch an 8-inch GaN semiconductor foundry service for consumer, data center and automotive applications by 2025. At the time, it was reported that Samsung Electronics was in talks with Aixtron to secure 30 to 40 systems for the GaN foundry service. Neither Samsung nor Aixtron have confirmed these reports, and it is unclear whether any of these systems are currently in Aixtron's order book. In any case, it appears that Samsung Electronics is now taking small steps to ramp up GaN capacity.
The potential of GaN. GaN is currently widely used in fast chargers for mobile devices, but is also increasingly used in other consumer electronics products, such as power supplies for televisions and games consoles, because of its ability to reduce power consumption and heat generation. For the same reason, GaN-based power supplies are increasingly being used in data centers, where energy costs and heat generation are key challenges in maintaining large server farms. Another potentially huge market is the replacement of Si or SiC in electric vehicles. Market entry is forecast for 2025/2026 for the on-board charger and DC-DC converter, and 2027 for the main inverter (commercial viability is not yet clear).
BUY, PT EUR 29.00. The market has punished Aixtron severely on fears that investment in SiC production equipment would stall as a result of the slowdown in the EV market. Therefore, it may be reassuring that there are signs that large GaN projects are progressing. We leave our estimates unchanged and reiterate our BUY recommendation with a price target of EUR 29.00.
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