The news is not good for gamers: after spending a year trying to get a video card at a minimally affordable price in the retail market, Samsung Foundry announced, on Tuesday, an increase in the price of its semiconductor wafers.

And, for those who still haven't managed to complete the connection between crispy biscuit and graphics card, it's good to remember that wafers are those silicon plates used as a basis for assembling processor chips. In other words, increasing the price of wafers means also increasing the price of GPUs from Nvidia, one of Samsung Foundry's main customers.

However, unlike the speculative reasons we are used to seeing, the increase in the price of semiconductor wafers aims, according to the Samsung foundry, to obtain extra resources to finance the expansion of the company's new manufacturing unit, the S5 Line, in Pyeongtaek, in South Korea.

Why is Samsung raising prices?

In a press release, Samsung Senior Vice President of Investor Relations Ben Suh explained that manufacturing wafers with 4LPE and 5LPP technology (4nm and 5nm respectively) use EUV, or ultraviolet, lithography. According to the executive, the increase in manufacturing values ​​is due to the price of EUV scanners, which can cost up to US$ 150 million each (R$ 776 million).

By increasing its production capacity to meet growing demand, Samsung hopes to manufacture more chips for its customers, especially for more advanced processes that will emerge in the future. The benefit will be an increase in supply in the long term, capable of reducing the scarcity present in the semiconductor market.

Meanwhile, on this side of the market, the scenario remains bleak for GPU retail. Even with the strong repression of crypto-mining determined by countries like China, the offer has not yet stabilized to the point of avoiding the "party" of the money changers who continue to charge exorbitant prices.