Both Qualcomm and MediaTek have opted for TSMC’s older 4nm technology for their latest chipsets (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 9300), leaving Samsung Foundry lagging behind. Consequently, Samsung not only lost potential customers but also experienced a significant decline in revenue. In retrospect, Samsung Foundry successfully produced the Exynos 2400 and secured AMD and Tesla as potential consumers. However, TSMC has widened the gap by attracting major customers to its side. That may change in the near future since a report by FT has pointed out that Qualcomm may look to side with SF rather than TSMC in the future for its upcoming Snapdragon SoCs. This is interesting since Samsung recently lost Qualcomm as its customer, and this will be an opportunity for it to regain its lost customer. Not only that, but 2nm would represent a huge shift in the semiconductor industry in general, and it would be interesting to see how semiconductor companies manage to capture customers in the longer run. With that said, SF would have to increase its yield rate for 3nm if it wants any potential clients. Recent reports have found that Samsung’s 4nm yield is close to 70%, but 3nm is at a meager 50%. For it to attract customers, Samsung would have to improve it to at least 70%, which it aims to do by next year. This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.
