TSMC is set to manufacture chips for Google at least through the Pixel 14

In its pixel smartphones, Google relies on long-term cooperation with TSMC. The Taiwanese chip manufacturer is to manufacture the next generations of the tensor processors-from pixel 10 to at least pixel 14.

New era for Google’s tensor chips

Google faces an important change of strategy in the production of its tensor processors. In the future, the company will no longer rely on Samsung as a manufacturing partner, but will work with TSMC instead. The change begins with the tensor G5 chip in Pixel 10. The decision for TSMC is not a short-term solution.

The change to TSMC’s more modern manufacturing systems is intended to improve thermal efficiency of the tensor chips and avoid the overheating problems that have repeatedly occurred. The new chip is manufactured on TSMCS 3-nanometer technology-the same manufacturing technology that Apple also uses for the A18 chip in the iPhone 16. How Digitimes reported (via 9to5google) A few months ago, high-ranking Google managers visited Taiwan to discuss chip production with TSMC. Cooperation should extend over a period of three to five years and reach at least to pixel 14.

Efficiency in focus

A more modern manufacturing process primarily means improved energy efficiency and enables more compact chip designs. This results in two advantages for Google: Either the same performance can be achieved with lower power consumption, or the chip size can be reduced with the same performance, which enables cost savings. TSMC is considered a technological pioneer in the semiconductor industry.

The company, founded in 1987, has its headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and is now the world’s largest independent semiconductor manufacturer. In addition to Apple, AMD, NVIDIA and Qualcomm also include the company’s customers. However, there are also restrictions: performance increases do not depend solely on the manufacturing process. Factors such as higher clock frequencies, updated CPU cores and architectural optimizations play an important role.

Therefore, even manufacturing at TSMC does not automatically guarantee that future tensor chips will achieve the performance of Qualcomms Snapdragon flagship socs. The previous tensor chips were manufactured by Samsung and were based on a combination of exlynos designs and Google’s own AI accelerators. These chips were strong in AI applications, but showed weaknesses in general computing power and energy efficiency. The move to TSMC could help Google to close this gap and improve the competitiveness of its pixel smartphones.