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Samsung Foundry once again loses Snapdragon bid to the obvious choice

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5 days ago

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Samsung Foundry once again loses Snapdragon bid to the obvious choice

Samsung Foundry has once more lost a Qualcomm bid: this time for manufacturing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 chipset. The upcoming Snapdragon processor will be entirely manufactured by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company).

Samsung Foundry hasn’t had the best year — low yield rates have haunted it for months — but it’s finally turning things around. Its 3 nm production just recently stabilized with acceptable yield rates and the foundry is also working on achieving 2 nm chipsets. Samsung Foundry has grander — read: smaller chips — plans as well for 1.4 nm chipsets by 2027.

However, considering how many flagship phones will want to boast about the latest Snapdragon chipset it’s understandable that Qualcomm chose the safer bet. Samsung Foundry probably offered killer discounts — like MediaTek offering its processors to Samsung — but TSMC was a more reliable option.

Naturally it is expected that Samsung Foundry will try again whenever the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 3 leaves the drawing board. Samsung Foundry may have a chance to manufacture a portion of the Gen 3 if it can prove itself until then by successfully fulfilling orders from other clients.

The upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra is said to be using a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. | Image credit — PhoneArena - Samsung Foundry once again loses Snapdragon bid to the obvious choice

The upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra is said to be using a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. | Image credit — PhoneArena

This isn’t the only way Qualcomm has disappointed Samsung recently. Reports indicate that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 will see a significant price hike which will lead to even more expensive Galaxy phones. Now that the 3 nm production process has been stabilized it would be expected for Samsung to switch its next phones back over to Exynos chips to avoid price increases.If Samsung is unable to bring Exynos back to life for the Galaxy S26 lineup then it will either need to use MediaTek processors or cheapen out on displays and cameras. I do think the company should be able to resurrect Exynos and I also think that that would be the smarter choice over chasing 2 nm processors.

The Galaxy S25 series will undoubtedly be some of the best phones worth buying in 2025. And as long as Samsung can keep dominating in other areas it can afford to keep improving its foundry business as well. 

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