Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 "for Galaxy" SoC Variant Linked to Samsung 2 nm GAA Node Process

[T0@st]

Industry watchdogs have held the belief that Samsung's foundry business has lost several key clients due to alleged yield problems—the South Korean megacorp appears to be diligently working on major improvements with currently "in-progress" manufacturing processes; namely 2 nm GAA (aka SF2). Semiconductor industry insiders believe that TSMC is still leading the way with a recently completed trial run of their own 2 nm design, but rumors of elevated prices have reportedly upset certain important customers. According to a fresh Sedaily news article, Qualcomm has conducted negotiations with Samsung Foundry top brass—semiconductor industry moles claim that a "Snapdragon 8 Elite 2nd generation product" was the main topic of discussion. This next-gen flagship mobile chipset was previously linked to a 3 nm TSMC node, but newer rumors point to a possible spin-off that will utilize a "more advanced 2 nm process"—courtesy of Samsung Electronic's prime "Hwaseong S3" facility.

Sedaily and Jukanlosreve reckon that mass production will kick off at this cutting-edge early next year. Earlier today, Jukanlosreve added extra conjecture/context via a long social media bulletin: "the completed chips are expected to be integrated into Samsung Galaxy smartphones slated for launch in H2 2026. Design work is to finish in Q2 2025, after which mass-production preparations will begin and wafer runs will start in Q1 2026. Output is estimated at roughly 1,000 twelve-inch wafers per month. Given that Samsung's current 2 nm capacity is about 7,000 wafers/month, this project would utilize only around 15 % of its available capacity—suggesting this is a modest order rather than a large-scale win." These predictions have surprised many industry observers; Samsung leadership has seemingly tried to prioritize the in-house Exynos mobile processor designs within futuristic flagship Galaxy smartphone devices. Jukanlosreve reckons that the Samsung Foundry is keen to embrace any new "golden opportunities," given the operation's weakened track record across the past half decade. One unnamed insider posited: "this Qualcomm partnership could pave the way for orders from other big tech players." Sedaily sent a query to Samsung HQ, regarding the latest inside talk—a company spokesperson replied with: "we cannot confirm anything related to customer orders."



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[kondamin]

Interesting, now samsung will have phones with snapdragon chip sets that you would want to avoid.

I do hope it's a good node for samsung and prices for everything get back to normal

 

[Tomorrow]

I very much doubt Qualcomm will use Samsung this time around considering their past "experiences"

The last time Qualcomm used Samsung's process node for their flagship Snapdragon SoC was with the:

• Year: 2022
• Model: Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
• Node: Samsung 4nm (4LPE)

Additional context:​

• The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, released in early 2022, was exclusively manufactured by Samsung on their 4nm Low Power Early (4LPE) process.
• This chip faced thermal and power efficiency issues, which led Qualcomm to switch back to TSMC for a mid-cycle refresh.

Follow-up:​

• Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, launched in mid-2022, was produced by TSMC on their 4nm (N4) node and addressed many of the performance and efficiency issues.
• Since then, Qualcomm has continued to use TSMC for its flagship SoCs like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (2023) and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (2024).

So, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (2022, Samsung 4nm) was the last flagship SoC to use Samsung's process node.