Qualcomm In Talks With Samsung For 2nm Chip Production Amid Concerns Of Rising Costs At TSMC: Report

• While Samsung has already announced its 2nm chip for smartphones, the Exynos 2600, Qualcomm is yet to announce its own offering built on the 2nm fabrication process.
• Apple’s A20 chip and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, which will power this year’s flagship smartphones, are expected to be built on TSMC’s 2nm node.
• Amid these concerns, Samsung President and head of global marketing, Wonjin Lee, on Tuesday warned of semiconductor shortages and price hikes.

Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) is reportedly in talks with Samsung Electronics (SSNLF) to manufacture next-generation 2-nanometer chips.

According to a Reuters report citing the Korea Economic Daily, Qualcomm is said to be holding talks with Samsung first before reaching out to other semiconductor foundry companies.

The report added that the chip’s design work has already been completed as Qualcomm gets ready to commercialize it in the near future.

Qualcomm shares were down 0.6% in Wednesday’s pre-market trade. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around the company trended in the ‘bullish’ territory at the time of writing.

The latest report comes amid concerns that the cost of production of 2nm chips at chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) will be significantly high, according to a report by GSMArena, citing Taiwan’s Economic Daily News.

While Samsung has already announced its 2nm chip for smartphones, the Exynos 2600, Qualcomm is yet to announce its own offering built on the 2nm fabrication process. Additionally, Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) A20 chip and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, which will power this year’s flagship smartphones, are expected to be built on TSMC’s 2nm node, the report added.

Samsung Warns Of Chip Shortage

Samsung President and head of global marketing, Wonjin Lee, on Tuesday warned of semiconductor shortages and price hikes. In an interview with Bloomberg, Lee said there will be issues with chip supplies that will affect everyone.

“Prices are going up even as we speak. Obviously, we don’t want to convey that burden to the consumers, but we’re going to be at a point where we have to actually consider repricing our products,” he said in the interview.

Growing Partnership

Qualcomm, the leading chip designer for smartphones globally, and Samsung, which has both a smartphone business as well as a chip-making division, have been expanding their partnership.

Last year, the two companies announced an expansion of their foundry cooperation into extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology. This included the manufacture of Snapdragon 5G chipsets using Samsung’s 7nm process, with up to 10% higher performance or up to 35% lower power consumption.

QCOM stock is up 7% year-to-date and 14% over the past 12 months.

Also See: Wharton's Jeremy Siegel Sees Three Policy Risks In January That Could ‘Materially’ Move Markets

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