Samsung denies rumours of 3nm chip defects

Samsung Foundry, the world's largest semiconductor chipmaker but the second largest in the contract manufacturing segment, has strongly denied rumours of problems with the production of 3nm chips.

Here's What We Know

Recently, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that Samsung Foundry is having performance issues with 3nm chips, which could lead to Qualcomm switching to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 for the Galaxy S25 series instead of the Samsung Exynos 2500 chip.

However, Samsung called the reports "unfounded". The company denies any problems with the production of 3nm chips and claims that it uses several verification processes throughout production to guarantee high quality.

According to some reports, problems with Samsung Foundry's second-generation 3nm process have affected 2,500 lots (65,000 12-inch wafers per month), resulting in a loss of about 1 trillion won ($720 million). However, Samsung claims that this information is not true.

Samsung plans to use dual-source application processors (SoCs) for the Galaxy S25 series. This means that the phones in some regions will use Samsung's own Exynos 2500 chip made by Samsung Foundry, while the phones in other regions will use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor made by TSMC. Both chips are manufactured on a 3nm process technology.

Samsung is also expected to use the 3nm Exynos W1000 chip in the Galaxy Watch 7 series. This chip is also made on the 3nm process at Samsung Foundry.

Source: SamMobile