On July 9th, Samsung Electronics confirmed on its official website that the company has won an order from Japanese artificial intelligence company Preferred Networks (PFN) to manufacture artificial intelligence chips for the company using a 2-nanometer foundry process and advanced chip packaging services. This is the first 2nm chip foundry collaboration publicly announced by Samsung Electronics since its layout of advanced manufacturing processes.
PFN has been a customer of TSMC since 2016, and Samsung Electronics has taken over from TSMC this time; quot; Seize Food& quot; Their behavior is seen by the industry as an important signal to challenge TSMC. However, it is worth noting that on July 10th, the market reported that TSMC is expected to start trial production of 2nm chips next week, striving to achieve a stable yield rate before formal mass production.
Although Samsung Electronics is temporarily leading, TSMC is also accelerating its pursuit. What is Samsung Electronics' chances of winning in the 2nm process field in the face of strong competitors?
GAA technology is relatively leading
Samsung Success& quot; Seize Food& The key to PFN is its relatively advanced 2nm GAA (Gate All Around) process. The reporter learned that GAA is an advanced transistor manufacturing technology. Compared with traditional FinFET technology, GAA structure can more accurately control current, thereby improving power efficiency and equipment performance.
From a process perspective, GAA can play a significant performance advantage in advanced processes below 3nm. Therefore, TSMC, Samsung, and Intel, the three contract manufacturing giants, have all focused on GAA, but their layout progress is different.
Samsung Electronics was the earliest manufacturer to officially announce the mass production of GAA. The company announced in 2022 that it will introduce a GAA structure at a 3nm node, with the goal of mass producing 2nm GAA devices by 2025. Based on the currently announced cooperation with PFN, the current progress is clearly faster than expected.
In contrast, TSMC has adopted a more robust technology roadmap. According to the currently released technology roadmap, TSMC will continue to use the FinFET process in the 3nm process, and the company expects to introduce the GAA process in the 2nm process. According to the news from the industry chain on July 10th, TSMC is expected to start trial production of 2nm chips next week. From a rhythm perspective, the backwardness of GAA technology has made TSMC's progress in the 2nm process field slightly slower than Samsung Electronics.
Intel has stated that it will fully introduce RibbonFET (GAAFET) from 2024 to 2025, but the 2nm process may not be available until 2025.
The customer's attitude is crucial
Qin Yi, Chairman of Guoming Investment, pointed out in an interview with First Financial that from a process perspective, Samsung Electronics adopts a 2nm GAA process. From a 2.5G packaging technology perspective, it adopts heterogeneous integrated packaging, which integrates multiple chips into one package, improves interconnection speed and reduces packaging size. In the future, Samsung and TSMC will compete fiercely in AI computing chips.
From a technical perspective, Samsung plans to start mass using the 2-nanometer process for mobile applications next year, expand to high-performance computing chips in 2026, and enter automotive chips in 2027. TSMC plans to mass produce 2-nanometer chips before next year, and Apple remains the first to do so; quot; Taste the Fresh; quot; Customers. The industry has speculated that due to Samsung's earlier adoption of GAA technology than TSMC, and its lead in grabbing orders, it may gain an advantage in the 2nm competition.
However, based on the current competitive landscape of the three contract manufacturing giants in the 3nm process, TSMC has already won seven major customers including Apple, Nvidia, and Chaowei Semiconductor, and production capacity is in short supply. Recently, it has confirmed a price increase. The Intel 3nm OEM process supplies a portion of the production capacity of the Intel 3 to our own chips. Although the scale is not inferior to TSMC, our business line can still run. By contrast, Samsung Electronics is facing a shortage; quot; Key Customers; quot; The awkward situation.
According to Li Huihui, a visiting associate professor at the University of Hong Kong's ICB, Samsung's winning of the 2nm chip order from PFN is an important breakthrough in the high-end chip market. Qualcomm's choice will become the key to this competition in the future.
Li Huihui pointed out that Samsung is preparing to attract customers with discounted prices on the 2nm process, especially orders from Qualcomm. But more subtly, Qualcomm is also a loyal customer of TSMC and has always been a major customer that TSMC's 2nm technology wants to compete for. The current situation is that Samsung is collaborating with PFN, while TSMC is steadily seizing Apple's orders, while Qualcomm has entrusted TSMC and Samsung with the development and trial production of 2nm chips.
Although Qualcomm's attitude towards the 2nm process is ambiguous, the company's attitude towards the 3nm process is clear. According to South Korean media reports, Google and Qualcomm have recently handed over OEM orders to TSMC due to issues with Samsung's 3nm technology's mass production yield and energy efficiency. Analysis shows that although Samsung Electronics places particular emphasis on controlling power consumption and heating, chips manufactured using its 3nm process still have 10% -20% lower performance than TSMC. It can be seen that in the competition on the 2nm track, although Samsung Electronics has won& quot; Early Bird& quot; Order, but can we win it; quot; Key Customers; quot; The favor of others remains to be observed.