Samsung Foundry’s pathetic yields have cost it business for the last few years
Samsung Foundry’s 2nm yield rate is unknown and hasn’t been publicly revealed which leads us to imagine that the reason for the cancellation might be price-related. The first 2nm chips are going to be more expensive to make than 3nm which is probably why the Galaxy S26 Ultra will be powered by a 3nm AP and that is where Samsung Foundry’s yield is a major issue.
Leaker says that TSMC will be the lone manufacturer of the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. | Image credit-X
A foundry’s yield is the number of functional chips produced from a silicon wafer divided by the maximum number of chips that the wafer could have produced. Samsung Foundry’s 20% yield for 3nm chips means that from a wafer that can produce 500 chips, Samsung Foundry is getting only 100 functional chips from it. The chip designer, in this case Qualcomm, would be financially responsible for the bad chips.
TSMC’s yield at 3nm is said to be 84% which makes Qualcomm’s decision a no-brainer even though Samsung Foundry’s 3nm node includes Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors that surround the channel on all four sides reducing current leakage and hiking the drive current. TSMC’s GAA transistors won’t be used until the world’s largest contract foundry starts shipping its own 2nm production.
