The latest research report from South Korean investment bank Dasin Securities shows that Samsung's semiconductor foundry division is expected to have won a 2nm notebook CPU order from a "North American fabless customer", which has attracted great attention in the industry. Since the report only gave geographical and customer attributes and did not explicitly name the manufacturer, the whistleblower Jukan later said on the social platform that "it looks like AMD", which made the outside world generally point the finger at this CPU giant that is actively seeking diverse foundry partners. This is also basically consistent with previous rumors that "AMD is in in-depth discussions with Samsung on the 2nm process."

According to reports, this order should involve AMD’s next-generation 2nm notebook and server CPU product lines “Venice” and “Verano”, both of which are scheduled to debut between 2026 and 2027. Among them, Venice, which is expected to be launched in 2026, can be configured with up to 256 "Zen 6C" cores and is packaged in eight CCD (Core Complex Die). Each CCD integrates 32 cores and is targeted at high-density computing and data center scenarios. Verano, scheduled to debut in 2027, is regarded as a dedicated variant of Venice for inference workloads such as "Agentic AI". It will serve as the host CPU platform for AMD Instinct MI500 series GPUs and is expected to adopt the more advanced Zen 7 architecture.

Against the background that advanced process production capacity continues to be tight, AMD's motivation for seeking cooperation from Samsung has become increasingly clear. The report pointed out that TSMC’s production capacity at advanced nodes is almost locked until 2028, which forces AMD to find a second supply source to alleviate wafer supply bottlenecks while ensuring scale shipments and market launch rhythm. AMD CEO Su Zifeng personally visited Samsung's wafer fab in Pyeongtaek not long ago to evaluate its process capabilities, which is also regarded as an important signal that the potential cooperation between the two parties has entered a substantial stage.

The outside world is still unsure whether Samsung's role in AMD's 2nm layout is a "backstop" or a "parallel foundry partner" in parallel with TSMC. If it is only used as a backup plan, the order volume allocated to Samsung may be relatively limited; but if AMD chooses to split the production rhythm of Venice and Verano between TSMC and Samsung, the yield and performance of Samsung's 2nm GAA process will directly determine whether it can obtain a larger share. Some analysts believe that AMD may also gain a certain "priority" in the supply of DRAM and other memories through its in-depth cooperation with Samsung, further optimizing the overall cost and supply flexibility of its platform.

Judging from the timing, this suspected 2nm CPU order is undoubtedly an important milestone for Samsung OEM. In the past few years, Samsung has been facing multiple pressures on advanced manufacturing processes such as yield, power consumption and performance reputation. The outside world generally believes that there is a clear gap between Samsung and TSMC. If it can win a major North American fabless customer like AMD at the 2nm node, it will win critical market endorsement for Samsung and help it win back the foundry competition in the era of AI and high-performance computing.

On the other hand, AMD's recent actions in production capacity scheduling are also quite active. The report quoted previous analysis as saying that AMD has taken over part of TSMC's 4nm and 5nm production lines "vacated" by Qualcomm and MediaTek to mass-produce its own previous-generation 5nm processors and improve its supply capacity and profit performance by "taking over gaps" during the period of low demand in the smartphone industry. This diversified, cross-node production capacity strategy, combined with potential cooperation with Samsung on 2nm, shows that AMD is trying to build a more flexible and risk-resistant manufacturing system to cope with the rapidly expanding demand for computing power in the AI ​​and data center markets.

At present, neither Samsung nor AMD has publicly confirmed Dasin Securities and related rumors, and there are still a lot of uncertainties in key details such as order size, introduction time, and mass production yield. However, in the context of TSMC's continued tight production capacity and the explosive demand for AI and high-performance computing, once this 2nm order is finally landed, it will inevitably set off a new round of competition in the global foundry landscape and high-end CPU market.