Samsung’s foundry business has been growing at a tremendous pace. With every passing quarter, the company is narrowing down the gap between itself and TSMC. As per the report from Hankyung, Samsung Foundry is the sole manufacturer for the flagship Snapdragon 875 5G SoC from Qualcomm.
However, this contradicts the earlier reports that stated TSMC has bagged a major portion of Qualcomm’s order. As per the reports from June this year, TSMC is rumored to have started production of the upcoming flagship Snapdragon 5G chipset.
Samsung to make all of the Snapdragon 875 5G SoC
According to the source, Qualcomm went ahead with Samsung because of the lower production costs. The deal is estimated to be worth KRW 1 trillion (approx. $846 million). Furthermore, the South Korean company will be able to match the quality of the output from TSMC.
Moreover, it also marks the first time Samsung will make all of the new-gen Qualcomm flagship chipsets. Qualcomm will be officially unveiling its new flagship chipset by the end of this year. The Snapdragon 875 5G SoC will be built on the latest 5nm EUV process and will power a majority of the next-gen Android flagship smartphones.
The list also includes the Galaxy S21 series, which will launch in the first quarter of 2021. The chipset production will take place at the company’s foundry facility in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. Notably, the company is betting big on the new-gen technologies by strengthening R&D and expanding production facilities.
It is the world’s second-largest contract foundry
Samsung wants to be the leading semiconductor company by 2030. Recently, it also received orders for manufacturing the newly announced IBM POWER 10 processor using a 7nm process and Nvidia’s RTX 3000-series GPUs using a 5nm process.
Even Google has partnered with Samsung to manufacture its own mobile chipset for its Pixel smartphones. With a market share of 17.4 percent, Samsung is the second-largest contract foundry in the world. However, it is still far behind TSMC which holds a global market share of more than 50 percent.
Samsung has also started prototyping 3nm chips even before the 5nm chips entered the consumer market. Unlike TSMC, Samsung has opted for a more advanced Gate All Around Field Effect Transistor (GAA-FET) process for producing its 3nm chips. TSMC is reportedly relying on the current FinFET process.
Earlier this month, Qualcomm also announced launching a new Snapdragon 4-series 5G chipset manufactured by Samsung. It will officially launch in early 2021 and brings 5G connectivity to low-cost smartphones.