Samsung aims to surpass TSMC
The South Korean tech giant Samsung is formulating plans to outperform TSMC in the field of chipset production.
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While Samsung Foundry hasn't been celebrated as the premier chip manufacturer, it's currently making strides to close the gap with its Taiwanese competitor, TSMC. Samsung confessed earlier that its mass production of leading-edge process technologies doesn't quite match TSMC's advanced production nodes. Nevertheless, Samsung pledged to overtake TSMC within the next five years and recent developments suggest the company is delivering on its promise. A report suggests that Samsung's 3 nm process yield has overtaken TSMC's by a notable margin.
According to Korean publication KMIB, Samsung's 3nm yield has reached 60%, overtaking TSMC which lags behind at 55%. Yield in this context refers to the percentage of viable chips produced from a silicon wafer, so a higher yield denotes more chips produced per wafer, which subsequently reduces production costs.
Samsung aims to surpass TSMC
TSMC, known for manufacturing Apple’s A17 and M3 chips using its 3nm process, only bills Apple for the viable chips produced using its process node, as opposed to a standard rate of $17,000 per wafer. This approach is likely due to TSMC's yield rate for its 3nm process being relatively low, as reported by KMIB.
With Samsung allegedly outperforming TSMC in terms of yields, it might win back some of the customers it lost over the years. Reports suggest that AMD may turn to Samsung’s 3 nm node for some of its forthcoming AI and data center parts. Historically, TSMC has surpassed Samsung in terms of yield rates, with the Korean company's 4 nm process achieving a yield rate of 75% compared to TSMC's impressive 80%.