TSMC will be the exclusive manufacturer of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4

Qualcomm recently debuted the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. The chipset will be used by several smartphone companies in their flagship devices. Since the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be the first chipset to use Qualcomm’s domestically built Oryon cores, it represents a significant turning point in the company’s smartphone AP roadmap.

In the past few months, we have come across several rumors regarding which company will fabricate the new chipsets. Some sources claim that the new chipset will be fabricated by the South Korean tech giant Samsung, while others suggest that TSMC will get the opportunity to fabricate the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipsets. Another report recently emerged that indicates that both TSMC and Samsung will get the orders. According to a news report from Taiwan, TSMC will get the order.

The Taiwanese report also claims that the reports regarding the dual-sourcing of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 were not baseless. Because of the yield and capacity issues with the 3 GAP nodes developed by Samsung, Qualcomm was forced to switch to TSMC’s N3E process. It is impossible to hold Samsung accountable because it will surely give its proprietary Exynos 2500 (or Dream Chip, depending on who you ask) priority over its rival.

However, because Apple has reserved the majority of TSMC’s N3E fabrication area, Qualcomm might have to pay more for that space. Additionally, MediaTek and Intel intend to produce a few components for the TSMC N3E, which will further reduce the accessible bandwidth. For this reason, Qualcomm could have claimed that it would be adopting a dual-sourcing strategy for SoCs.

The company could utilize Samsung’s services for mid-range SKUs, where TSMC will fabricate the chips for high-end smartphones. During the launch event of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the company claimed that smartphones featuring the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 could be more expensive.