Samsung has been working hard to acquire clients for its foundry division for some time now. Manufacturing chips for companies that do not have their own manufacturing facilities is a very lucrative business. However, it is also very complicated. In addition, chip manufacturers are now under enormous pressure due to the ongoing global chip crisis. If they are unable to meet client requirements, whether due to insufficient chip yield or technology issues, orders may move elsewhere. And Qualcomm has now done just that.
According to Korean website The Elec, citing SamMobile, Qualcomm has decided to have its "next-gen" 3nm chips manufactured by its biggest competitor in the field, TSMC, instead of Samsung. The reason is said to be longer-lasting problems with the yield of chips in the factories of the Korean giant.
The website also mentions in its report that Qualcomm has entered into an agreement with TSMC to produce a certain amount of the 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, which powers, among other things, a series of Galaxy S22, although Samsung's foundry was previously selected as the sole manufacturer of this chipset. It was already speculated at the end of last year that Qualcomm was considering such a move.
Samsung's yield issues are more than worrying - according to anecdotal reports, the yield of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip produced at the Samsung Foundry is only 35%. This means that out of 100 units produced, 65 are defective. At his own chip Exynos 2200 the yield is allegedly even lower. Samsung will certainly feel the loss of such a contract, and it seems that it is not the only one – earlier, the company Nvidia was supposed to move from the Korean giant, and also to TSMC, with its 7nm graphics chip.
Samsung should start manufacturing 3nm chips this year. Already at the end of the year before last, there were reports that it intends to spend 116 billion dollars (about 2,5 trillion crowns) in the coming years to increase efficiency in the field of chip production in order to better compete with TSMC. However, it seems that this effort is not yet bearing the desired fruit.
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