Samsung Electronics to start mass production of 2nm mobile chips in 2025

Choi Si-young, president and general manager of foundry business at Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions Division, speaks during the Samsung Foundry Forum in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday (local time). Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

By Baek Byung-yeul

Samsung Electronics plans to catch up with Taiwan's TSMC in the foundry business by starting mass production of 2-nanometer mobile chips in 2025, the Korean chip giant announced at the Samsung Foundry Forum held in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday (local time).

During the forum, Samsung said it will continue to expand the use of the 2-nanometer process to high-performance computing (HPC) chips in 2026 and automotive semiconductors in 2027.

This is the first time that Samsung shared a detailed roadmap of mass production using the 2-nanometer process, although the company announced in 2022 that it would begin producing chips using the process in 2025 and the 1.4-nanometer process in 2027.

The lower the number, the more advanced the semiconductor process. Mass production using the 1.4-nanometer process will begin in 2027 as planned, the company said.

The 2-nanometer process is expected to become more important in the foundry business, which produces chips ordered by semiconductor design companies, because data usage will dramatically increase in artificial intelligence (AI) chips and HPC. In addition to Samsung and TSMC, U.S.-based Intel and Rapidus of Japan also announced mass production plans based on the 2-nanometer process.

Samsung said it plans to begin full-scale mass production of foundry products for various applications, including mobile devices, at Line 3 of its Pyeongtaek foundry factory in the second half of this year.

Its Taylor foundry factory in Texas is currently under construction and Samsung said Line 1 at the U.S. factory will be completed in the second half of this year as planned and will begin production in the second half of 2023.

The forum was attended by more than 700 key customers and partners of Samsung's foundry business. Also, 38 partner companies set up promotional booths at the event to share the latest foundry technology trends.

“Many customers are actively developing AI-specific semiconductors to optimize their products and services,” said Choi Si-young, president and general manager of the foundry business at Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions Division. “Samsung Electronics will continue to innovate the most optimized GAA transistor technology for AI semiconductors and lead the paradigm shift in AI technology.”

GAA refers to gate-all-around transistor architecture technology, a core technology that increases data processing speed and power efficiency.