Over the past few years, Samsung Foundry has lost many customers to TSMC due to low chip manufacturing efficiency and thermal issues. However, the South Korean firm is relying on the upcoming 3nm chip manufacturing process to win back its customers from TSMC. Samsung’s 3nm chip manufacturing efficiency reportedly exceeds TSMC’s, a rare feat for Samsung.

Competition between Samsung and TSMC heats up

According to the information conveyed, the efficiency of Samsung Foundry’s 4nm semiconductor production process has exceeded the 75 percent limit. It is reported that TSMC’s efficiency is 80 percent in the same production process. Currently, the 4nm fabrication process powers the current generation of mobile SoCs, PC processors and, more importantly, GPUs that ushered in the golden age of artificial intelligence.

By the way, don’t let the term “yield” we’re talking about cause confusion. In semiconductor manufacturing processes, efficiency means how much of the wafer is usable. The higher the throughput, the higher the number of chips that can be made using a semiconductor wafer, resulting in increased costs and efficiency.

According to the published report, the current efficiency of Samsung Foundry’s 3nm chip manufacturing process has reached 60 percent. On the other hand, TSMC’s 3nm efficiency is 55 percent. This means that Samsung finally has an edge over TSMC in advanced chip manufacturing technology. As TSMC lags behind Samsung Foundry in the 3nm segment, it is possible for Samsung to regain lost customers to TSMC for their 4nm and 5nm processes.

However, Nvidia and Qualcomm are said to be interested in Samsung Foundry’s second-generation 3nm (SF3) process, as most of TSMC’s manufacturing capacity has been reserved by Apple. At the same time, TSMC’s 3nm prices are also more expensive than Samsung’s. This could make Nvidia, Qualcomm and others return to Samsung.