Samsung just made it a lot harder to recommend TSMC’s chips

Samsung has been working extra hard for years to make its chip manufacturing the best in the business, though it still falls behind TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company). However, the company has just made a decision that will make it a lot harder for clients to choose TSMC for their manufacturing needs.

Samsung Foundry has decided to cut down the prices of its 2 nm wafers to just $20,000. This is much cheaper than TSMC’s estimated pricing of $30,000, which means that the foundry should start attracting a lot more attention a lot quicker.



Samsung Foundry has struggled a lot these past few years when it comes to securing clients. This has mostly been because of the foundry’s poor yield rates. For example, Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2500 was supposed to debut in the Galaxy S25 series, but low 3 nm yields forced the company to use Snapdragon.

Throughout 2024, it seemed like Samsung Foundry was on the brink of collapse. Then it suddenly stabilized its 3 nm process, and immediately began improving its 2 nm yields.

As it stands, Samsung is still having trouble achieving feasible yields for its 2 nm manufacturing processes. However, this time around, the company’s progress has been a lot better. We already have Exynos 2600 benchmarks, which is Samsung’s in-house 2 nm processor that it plans to use in the Galaxy S26 lineup of phones.



As the foundry has failed to attract customers due to its yield rates, it has now reduced (translated source) the pricing of its 2 nm wafers significantly. This massive price cut starts adding up, fast. While many companies will still choose to do business with TSMC, this new pricing is not going to make that decision easy, or financially advisable.

TSMC doesn’t face any major threats just yet, but Samsung Foundry is coming for that crown, and the former will face a lot of pressure to reduce its own prices if Samsung keeps up this momentum.

Also, if Samsung does manage to perfect the Exynos 2600 in time, then that will mean that it will have a real-world example of its prowess to show to the entire world.

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