Samsung’s aim is clear: to show that it can compete with the best and be the top company in the semiconductor industry again.
For years, the battle to be the market leader in chips has been fought between three giants: TSMC, Samsung and Intel. But recently, the Korean company has lost some of its energy.
Its president, Jay Y. Lee, recently said this in an internal message: “We’ve lost our technological edge, and we need to come up with some new ideas.” The key to that comeback lies in the development of increasingly smaller and more powerful chips, and that’s where 2 nanometers come in.
Samsung has been working hard on this 2 nm node for more than two years, considering it the most important and powerful future of the industry. By January 2025, the company had already attracted the interest of customers such as Preferred Networks and several Asian AI firms, but the big breakthrough came when Nvidia and Qualcomm began testing their designs in Korean factories.
If Samsung can agree to work with these two US giants, it could cause a big change in the industry and put TSMC in a difficult position. TSMC has been the preferred partner for making the world’s best chips until now.
But be careful, this is not just about Asia, and Samsung is thinking big. The company is planning to make these 2-nanometre chips at its factory in Texas. This would allow it to avoid US tariffs and attract American customers. Apple, AMD, Nvidia, and Qualcomm are looking for the best partner for their most important products, and Samsung is there to deliver the final blow.
The 2-nanometer war has started.
This battle is not just about marketing, even though it may seem that way. There’s a lot more to it. We are talking about chips that promise to be up to 12% better than the last ones and use 25% less energy. Samsung has announced that it will start making lots of its new products in 2025. These include mobile phones, data centres and cars.
But be careful, TSMC is better than Samsung at reliability and performance. TSMC’s 2 nm processes already achieve a yield of over 60% (the percentage of good chips per wafer), while Samsung is around 30% and is getting better. The challenge is huge. Whoever makes the most advanced chips also has a lot of control over new technology around the world.
This is why it’s important for chip manufacturers and designers to work together. Companies like Nvidia and Qualcomm can split their orders between Samsung and TSMC, always looking for the best price and the most advanced technology. Samsung knows that having a factory in the US could be the thing that convinces the big companies in Silicon Valley to buy its products.
Samsung is already working on even smaller chips, called 1.4 and 1-nanometer chips, and plans to release them in 2027 and 2029. It is behind with 2-nanometer chips, but it wants this to be the last thing that TSMC has an advantage over it.
But despite all this, it is hard for the Koreans. Its latest 3 nm processes had performance problems, and some very important customers, such as Qualcomm, have chosen to continue relying on TSMC for their products. Even for its own Galaxy S25 mobile phones, Samsung has had to use competing Snapdragon chips.
