Samsung could design the future Qualcomm flagship chips

Samsung Foundry introduced the Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Both chips faced overheating and other performance issues. Owing to this issue, Qualcomm was awarded the production of Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to TSMC. However, we could expect that Qualcomm could return to Samsung in the near future.

The Senior VP and CMO of Qualcomm, Don Maguire, mentioned something interesting regarding the company’s plan. The revelations were made while talking to the journalists as per TheElec. He mentioned that Qualcomm is working on maintaining a collaborative approach toward Samsung. Furthermore, he added that the company might work again with the South Korean firm regarding the production of 2nm and 3nm semiconductor chips.

Additionally, the Senior VP and CMO of Qualcomm were asked about the dual-foundry strategy of Qualcomm. He responded that Qualcomm is a huge company and it doesn’t consider going for a single foundry. According to him, a multi-foundry strategy is easy to manifest and manage the supplies. Additionally, the strategy is beneficial in terms of scale as well as price competitiveness. He added that a multi-foundry strategy is advantageous when considering business expansion besides the smartphone industry.

As of now, Qualcomm has nominated TSMC as the primary partner for the production of 3nm chips. However, some of them could be manufactured by the Samsung foundry given that the company doesn’t face performance and yield issues. Where Samsung is about to start the mass production of 2nm chips in 2025.

Compared to the previous-generation nodes, Samsung foundry is working on utilizing the GAA technology for the latest 3nm process nodes. It is expected that this technology will bring substantial gains in terms of power efficacy. In contrast, TSMC is utilizing the FinFET structure for 4nm and 3nm chips. It is expected to introduce GAA tech given its 2nm node.