TSMC to manufacture Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipsets on 7nm process in 2018: Report

If you know anything about chipset manufacturers, then you would know that the industry is essentially lead by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics. And the two have always been heads on in bagging the orders to manufacture for Qualcomm.

Few weeks ago, Samsung confirmed that it would fabricate the Snapdragon 845 chipset on its 10nm LPP process. And now, a new report by Nikkei claims that TSMC is set to gain Qualcomm’s modem and core processor orders next year.

The report quotes chip industry executives as saying, “Qualcomm is engaging TSMC to roll out a modem chip very soon in the first half of 2018 and TSMC will manufacture the mobile giant’s upcoming flagship Snapdragon processor, known as Snapdragon 855, before the end of next year.”

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Apparently, the 7nm process will also be used by TSMC to make the core processors for the 2018 iPhones.

“Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 835 and Snapdragon 845 processors are made by Samsung using 10nm technology. Snapdragon 835 processors have been adopted by a wide range of smartphone makers including Samsung, Oppo, Sony and Xiaomi, while Xiaomi will be the first to use the Snapdragon 845 chip that was unveiled earlier this month,” the report reads.

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The report further quotes an industry executive as saying that Samsung is losing Qualcomm orders to TSMC next year because the company will not be fabricating 7nm chips in 2018. It went on to state that “Qualcomm is still likely to transfer orders back to Samsung in 2019 if its 7nm chip facility becomes ready”. This is because Samsung uses Qualcomm chips in its mobile devices.

Finally, as per the report, the critical competitive battle between TSMC and Samsung to win leadership in advanced semiconductors will take place in 2019. At that time, both companies are expected to have commercial availability of 7nm chips made with EUV.

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