Earlier this week Qualcomm announced its 4nm-based Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that will power the upcoming flagship mobile devices in 2022 and according to Qualcomm’s CEO, Cristiano Amon, they have solicited help from Samsung to manufacture them.
At the Snapdragon Tech Summit in Hawaii, Amon confirmed to attendees that the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip is being mass-produced by Samsung Foundry using the 4nm process. ETNews suggests there are two reasons for Qualcomm to go with the Korean company – first is Samsung’s consistent supply and reliability and second is the restricted supply commitment from TSMC as both Apple and MediaTek consume the most of TSMC’s 4nm process line.
Having said that, it doesn’t look like Samsung will be the exclusive fab partner. In the same Q&A, Amon iterated the importance of TSMC and Intel as the future foundry partners.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will also compete with Samsung’s own 4nm-based Exynos 2200 that has popped up on benchmarking websites but should be announced closer to Galaxy S22’s unveiling date.
In Q&A about @SamsungDSGlobal leading process nodes @cristianoamon also mentioned @TWSemicon and @Intel in the future as foundry partners. @Qualcomm has long multi-sourced chips from multiple fabs and is why they expect to not have supply issues next year. #SnapdragonSummit pic.twitter.com/nxiFnihYiR
— Anshel Sag (@anshelsag) December 1, 2021