Apple has been moving to its own silicon across the whole Mac range and pattern attention to new chips aboard iPhones is usually the canary in the coal mine. The company has been scaling 3nm chips for iPhone and MacBook over the course of a year, while rivals such as Google and Samsung are only beginning to research 3nm tech. Google will use TSMC 3nm technology for its first Tensor G5 chips in 2025.
Google to Adopt 3nm for Tensor G5
For years, Apple has been the biggest TSMC client and the first with access to TSMC’s latest chips, all to gain an advantage in performance as much as profits. According to reports, TSMC has a contract with Google, which is set to design entirely new G series Tensor chips for the Pixel phones.
If Google and its partners can make sure the supply is there, then Tensor G5 will be the first 3nm chip specifically for lower-end Google Pixel devices. But now, thanks to a new report from Business Korea, the reports of Google developing chip testing facilities have been corroborated by evidence that TSMC has also started production on Google-designed custom processors: the first of which is being fabricated using a 3nm process. The improved chip would place the Pixel phones on par with iPhone models available now, but Apple still excels in innovation and performance.
When Google releases its 3nm Tensor G5 chip for Pixel phones, Apple could be shifting to using 2nm or even a 1.4nm chip on its iPhone, iPad, and Mac. While this may give Pixel devices a slight leg up at best, Samsung, MediaTek, and Qualcomm are all set to adopt this 3nm technology for their respective future wares.
In the age of generative AI, supporting on-device super-computation becomes a requirement and 3nm chips will establish themselves as a new baseline with the iPhone. The company claims the new technology will allow Pixel devices to have significantly more powerful computational and graphical performance while leaving plenty of room for on-device AI features. The Pixel 9 series is currently ongoing, now with Google’s Tensor G3 chip based on a 4nm process. The Pixel smartphones of the tenth era are needed to incorporate a contemporary 3-nanometer chip.
Samsung, meanwhile, faces challenges with its 3nm chips, experiencing low yield ratios and efficiency issues. Compared to TSMC’s 3nm chips, Samsung’s Exynos 2500 chip exhibits 10 to 20 percent less heat dissipation and is less power-efficient. Google’s success with this technology will also depend on its ability to optimize the integration between hardware and software, which will be crucial for the future performance of Pixel phones.
