Samsung Foundry's 3nm GAA process has been a bit of a money pit for the company. The yields have been so poor that it couldn't produce enough Exynos 2500 chips for the mobile division to use in the Galaxy S25 series, forcing it to go entirely with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for the new flagship lineup.
There was speculation that the company is now focusing more on next-generation nodes to better compete against TSMC. However, the latest whispers out of South Korea suggest that Samsung may be putting the 1.4nm node on the back burner. Could this be the beginning of the end for the foundry?
It's been a rocky road for Samsung Foundry
A previous roadmap shared by Samsung Foundry highlighted the company's goal to start manufacturing chips on its 1.4nm process by 2027. However, it was reported a couple of months ago that Samsung had slowed down progress on the next-gen nodes as it wanted to spend more time sorting out the 3nm and 2nm processes.
These efforts have seemed to bear fruit as the test yields on its 2nm process have reportedly hit 30%, yet it still lags behind TSMC's reported 2nm test yields of 60%. TSMC remains the world's largest contract chipmaker with a 67.1% market share in Q4 2024. Samsung comes in a very distant second place.
There are rumors now that Samsung has canceled the 1.4nm node, but no solid reasons have been provided. It could be that the foundry business is really struggling as it's been heavily burning cash or perhaps Samsung wants to focus on improving wafer yields first. The company is focused on ensuring it can provide the Exynos 2600 chipset at the volume required to supply for production of the Galaxy S26 and hopefully win over customers for this node.
Several reports have already highlighted a likely cut in facility investments by the foundry division as there's little demand for its advanced nodes and orders have even dropped for its legacy 5nm and 7nm nodes. This might also force the company to reduce its planned investments for new chip manufacturing facilities in South Korea and the United States.
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