The world's largest chip makers - Samsung Electronics, Intel and TSMC - are taking different paths this year in terms of investment in plants and equipment. According to to a TrendForce report, Samsung plans to inject US$11.5 billion in capacity expansion into its semiconductor business this year, down 15 percent from last year's $13.5 billion.

Samsung has a strong presence in the area of memory chips like DRAM and NAND flash memory chips.

Intel is the world's largest non-memory chip supplier with focus on microprocessors. In the overall chip maker ranking, Intel is ahead of Samsung, ranking No. 1. TSMC is the world's largest foundry supplier.

The company plans to spend $9.5 billion for facilities this year, increasing the amount of its capacity investment by about 30 percent compared to a year ago.

TSMC also intends to increase its capacity expansion investment by 17 percent from $8.1 billion last year to $9.5 billion this year.