Despite all the setbacks of recent years, Samsung’s 2nm chips are getting closer: the Korean company, in fact, was the first in the world to receive an order for the production of 2nm chips, thus overtaking historic rival TSMC. But which chips are these? And above all: which company does the order come from?
No, this is neither Apple nor NVIDIA, Unfortunately. On the contrary, GizmoChina reports that Samsung has entered into an agreement with the Japanese company Preferred Networks (PFN), which until now had always relied on TSMC for the production of its chips. The shift in PFN could be due to the fact that TSMC’s 2nm chips will arrive in late 2025, probably a few months after Samsung’s, and what’s more they could cost much more of those of the Suwon giant.
Although Cupertino or Team Verde are not behind the agreement, however, the news should not be taken lightly. In reverse, Preferred Networks is an AI giant, and aims to use 2nm chips precisely in its accelerators dedicated to Artificial Intelligence. However, the partnership with Samsung is a leap of faith for the Japanese company, since Suwon’s 2nm node is not yet in production, while its yield (i.e. its efficiency) is still unknown.
Furthermore, generally Samsung is a few steps behind TSMC both in terms of performance and efficiency of its chips, while also the yield of its production processes has never been the best. Only with Samsung’s second-generation 3nm chips do things seem to have changed. Furthermore, judging from the agreement signed by PFN, it is possible that the situation will definitively reverse in favor of the Korean giant in the coming months. The great unknown, at this point, is that relating tostart of production of Samsung’s 2nm chips: Is it possible that they are arriving as early as 2024?