Exynos Faces Hurdle: TSMC Refuses to Take on Samsung’s Chip Production

January 16, 2025 – Recent reports indicate a significant development in the semiconductor industry as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has declined to manufacture Samsung’s Exynos chips. This news comes after an initial report by Jukanlosreve on November 13th, stating that Samsung was considering outsourcing the production of its Exynos chips to TSMC.

Last December, Korean media outlets quoted Samsung Electronics executives who claimed that the company’s second-generation 3nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) technology had reached a stable phase. The report also mentioned that the System LSI and foundry business units had ended their “mutual blame game” and were instead collaborating to advance the commercialization of new chips. It was rumored that Samsung had resolved the yield issues with its 3nm process, clearing the way for the application of the Exynos 2500. However, the specific yield ratio was not disclosed.

Previous leaks suggested that Samsung had originally planned to deploy the Exynos 2500 chip in its Galaxy S25 series of smartphones. However, due to yield rates below 20%, the company decided to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Ultimate Edition for Galaxy chips in the entire S25 lineup instead. As a result, the Exynos 2500 chip was relegated to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 devices. The recent refusal by TSMC to produce the Exynos chips adds another layer of complexity to Samsung’s semiconductor strategy.

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