Samsung foundry unreliable, their flagship processor Exynos may be transferred to TSMC

     According to reports, due to the unsatisfactory performance of Samsung's foundry business, coupled with weak market demand, Samsung has decided to further close some of the previous generation of production lines. It is particularly noteworthy that even its most advanced second-generation 3-nanometer 3GAP process technology has only reached a low yield of 20% (reference reading: TSMC! Samsung second generation 3 nm yield is still very low "> Can not challenge TSMC! Samsung's second generation 3 nm yield is still very low). This situation has forced Samsung to consider other contract manufacturing options for its high-end Exynos processors.

     Previously, foreign media reports such as Wccftech and PhoneArena pointed out that Samsung's schedule for launching the 3nm GAA process may even be earlier than TSMC's 3nm N3B process. However, market rumors say that Samsung's original expectation of the second-generation 3-nanometer GAA process yield should reach 70%, but the actual performance is far below this goal, only about one-third of the expected. This gap has resulted in Samsung's self-developed Exynos 2500 processor not being able to be included in the Samsung Galaxy S25 smartphone expected to be released in 2025 as planned, instead opting for Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite as an alternative.

     Although Samsung is still insisting on not giving up the research and development of the Exynos series processor, in the face of the reality that the yield of the second-generation 3nm 3GAP process technology continues to be low, Samsung has to explore other foundry options. Accordingly, there are foreign media reports that Samsung may be forced to cooperate with its biggest rival, TSMC, by TSMC to produce its own Exynos processor.

     However, there is no definite news about this cooperation at present. Even if the cooperation is finally completed, it will take some time to see the Exynos processor manufactured by TSMC become available. While these reports may only be hearsay, given the state of Samsung's foundry business, the rumors don't seem unfounded. However, because Samsung foundries are still owned by Samsung Electronics, conflicts of interest can be a major obstacle to cooperation. In the future, if Samsung foundry business can be independent of Samsung Electronics, then the possibility of this cooperation may be greatly increased.