TSMC is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of chipsets. The company is responsible for producing chipsets for some of the biggest tech companies in the world. We’re talking about clients such as Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and NVIDIA, just to name a few. While Samsung has its own foundry services, it isn’t on par with TSMC. But it seems that Samsung could be on the cusp of landing Qualcomm as a future customer, thanks to a recent Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 AP sample.
Samsung shows Qualcomm a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 AP sample
According to a post on X by user @Jukanlosreve, Samsung has supplied Qualcomm with an AP sample of its latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. At the moment, it is largely expected that TSMC will manufacture the chipset for Qualcomm. However, Samsung’s sample was made using the company’s 2nm process.
Building the chipset on the 2nm process over the 3nm process has its advantages. It adopts the Gate-All-Around architecture, which is said to improve both the chip’s performance and power consumption. That being said, one sample isn’t going to be enough to convince Qualcomm to jump ship from TSMC to Samsung.
The company is expected to put the sample through its paces, testing for power efficiency, performance, heat generation, and more. Assuming all goes to plan, Qualcomm could then request for trial production.
Samsung isn’t overtaking TSMC yet
That being said, even if the sample impresses Qualcomm, the company might not ditch TSMC for Samsung completely. Instead, Qualcomm might go with a dual-sourcing strategy. This means that it may buy from both Samsung and TSMC. This is actually a smart play and one Qualcomm might have gone for, except that TSMC’s manufacturing and tech is so advanced that it’s hard to find alternatives.
Samsung and Qualcomm had previously worked together. However, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which was produced on the 4nm process, resulted in heat and yield issues. This ultimately led to Qualcomm shifting production to TSMC. We had previously heard rumors that Qualcomm was planning to work with Samsung for the Snapdragon 8 Elite 5. However, those plans were cancelled.
Maybe this sample could prove to Qualcomm that Samsung is ready to start producing its next-gen chipsets. 2026 is expected to be the year we start seeing 2nm chipsets hit the market, so who knows, maybe Samsung could land some orders for Qualcomm’s next-gen flagship chipset.
