Samsung Foundry’s 4nm output for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chips is very low

Samsung is the biggest chip manufacturer in the world and is second in terms of contract logic chip manufacturing. Ahead of it is TSMC, its primary rival, for years. It does not appear that Samsung will be overtaking TSMC anytime soon especially considering its latest 4nm chip production numbers.

During the 54th annual shareholders meeting, the South Korean firm revealed that since more advanced semiconductor process nodes such as the 4nm and 5nm are pretty complex, they take more time to manufacture. Samsung Foundry’s yields for the 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chips are very low at just 35%.

The MediaTek Dimensity 9000 chip on the other hand that is based on TSMC’s 4nm node is more power-efficient in comparison to the Exynos 2200 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chip that is based on Samsung’s 4nm process.

As per a report that came out a few weeks ago, Samsung has lost Qualcomm as a client for its upcoming 4nm and 3nm chips to TSMC. Qualcomm has opted for TSMC as it could release its Snapdragon 8 Gen1+ chip later on this year. TSMC now has three major clients: Apple, MediaTek, and Qualcomm.

Samsung is looking to better its performance with its 3nm process that may launch towards the end of 2022 or in early 2023. It will use a completely new Gate All Around process for its 3nm technology, which as per industry experts could improve performance by a significant margin. TSMC is yet to switch to GAA technology.

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