Abstract:
As the competition for next-generation advanced process production capacity becomes increasingly fierce, Qualcomm’s next-generation flagship mobile platform Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 may usher in a major change in its foundry strategy. The latest news from the Korean industrial chain and industry shows that Qualcomm is in in-depth discussions with Samsung Electronics on advanced process foundry. The chip may no longer be fully exclusively manufactured by TSMC, but will adopt a dual foundry model in which TSMC and Samsung divide labor.
Looking back on the past, Qualcomm will shift the mass production of its flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon processors to TSMC OEMs starting in 2022 due to the yield rate and heating power consumption issues in the Samsung OEM era. However, as TSMC’s advanced process foundry quotations continue to rise, production capacity continues to be highly tight, and the semiconductor industry chain’s realistic considerations of diversifying manufacturing risks and reducing supply chain concentration have prompted Qualcomm to re-examine the possibility of cooperation with Samsung’s wafer foundry department. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has also previously traveled to South Korea to have substantive contacts with Samsung executives.
According to potential plans disclosed by people familiar with the matter, Qualcomm may carry out hierarchical foundry planning for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series. Among them, the high-end version with more stringent specifications and energy efficiency requirements is expected to continue to rely on TSMC's advanced nodes, while some standard version models or specific configuration versions are expected to be produced using Samsung's latest 2nm process. Samsung has continued to make efforts in improving process yield and thermal management in recent years. Its process performance and energy efficiency improvements have created opportunities to win back orders from Qualcomm.
If this dual foundry solution is finally implemented, it will not only break the exclusive foundry situation that TSMC has maintained for several years in Qualcomm's flagship SoC field, but also mark Qualcomm's key strategic trade-offs in controlling chip material costs and balancing the advanced process supply chain. However, the two parties are still in the advanced stage of negotiation, and the official has not officially announced the final wafer foundry allocation details and the mass production schedule of each version.
Comments