South Korean Chip Gear Makers Hit by Record Non-Memory Chip Shortages, Stalling Samsung Deliveries

South Korean semiconductor equipment manufacturers are grappling with what they describe as the worst-ever shortage of non-memory chips, delaying deliveries to major clients including Samsung Electronics (005930.KS). At least one supplier with a contract exceeding 10 billion won ($7.6 million) postponed a shipment to Samsung by three months after critical components failed to arrive on time. Lead times for field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) — essential for real-time defect analysis in testing gear — have surged from 8–10 weeks to as long as 52 weeks. AMD (AMD-US) dominates the FPGA market following its acquisition of Xilinx. Driver ICs from Analog Devices (ADI-US) now require a minimum 10-week wait, up from immediate availability. Server-grade Intel (INTC-US) Xeon CPUs are in acute shortage, with spot prices tripling to 3 million won. Intel’s next-generation Diamond Rapids server chip has also been delayed to mid-2027. Equipment makers are pre-ordering components months ahead of contracts, but the entire non-memory supply chain remains strained. AI and data-center demand is competing directly with semiconductor testing tools for the same advanced chips, leaving the bottleneck with no near-term relief in sight.