Samsung may abandon the 1.4nm process.
International news website PhoneArena reports that Samsung has faced persistent yield challenges in its foundry business for many years. By 2024, the low yield of its 3nm process disrupted the production of the Exynos 2500 application processor (AP), which in turn forced Samsung to adjust its strategy for the flagship Galaxy S25 series. As a result, Samsung decided to equip all models of the Galaxy S25 series with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip to resolve supply shortages.
The original plan was that only the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Galaxy S25, and Galaxy S25+ sold in the U.S., Canada, and China markets would use Qualcomm’s system-on-chip (SoC), while other variants would feature the Exynos 2500. It is reported that the Exynos 2600 processor will be manufactured using Samsung Foundry’s 2nm process in 2025. Samsung holds only an 8.2% share of the foundry market, far behind TSMC’s 67.1%. Notably, even Intel, which has entered the foundry business, still needs to outsource part of its production to TSMC.
Generally, the more transistors a chip contains, the stronger its performance and the higher its energy efficiency. Shrinking the process node means smaller transistors, which increases both the number and density of transistors. Although Apple has not disclosed the transistor count of its latest chips, it is rumored to exceed 20 billion, highlighting the importance of advanced processes in improving chip performance and efficiency.
Samsung Foundry is still struggling with yield issues. If it cannot improve yields, Samsung may abandon advanced processes and instead focus on specialized mature processes. This would mean Samsung’s flagship and foldable phones would likely continue to use Qualcomm chips, affecting handset costs.
The cost-effectiveness of in-house chips is clearly higher than that of external suppliers such as Qualcomm. Samsung has clearly encountered major obstacles in pursuing advanced processes. Yield problems have affected not only its 3nm and 2nm nodes but may also force the company to reconsider its technological direction, including whether to abandon the 1.4nm process.
Compared with TSMC, Samsung Foundry has significant gaps in both technology and customer base. If it cannot effectively overcome yield challenges, Samsung Foundry will face severe tests to its development, which will in turn have a knock-on effect on Samsung’s mobile business and weaken product competitiveness. Whether Samsung Foundry can improve the yield of advanced processes will be the key factor determining its position in the semiconductor industry.