Qualcomm chooses Samsung to make the Snapdragon 865 chipset instead of TSMC

Samsung Electronics will be making Qualcomm’s next flagship chipset — Snapdragon 865 — according to a report from Korea. The last chipsets Samsung made for Qualcomm were the Snapdragon 820 and Snapdragon 835. Qualcomm and Samsung took a year-long hiatus in 2018, in which Taiwanese Semiconductor manufacturing company (TSMC) built the Snapdragon 845 and Snapdragon 855 for it. Reportedly, Samsung foundry for the Snapdragon 865 is expected to commence at the end of 2019. The chipset will be manufactured on the 7 nm ultra-violet (EUV) process. While TSMC used the manufacturing process first in 2018, Qualcomm reportedly believes that Samsung’s tech is more advanced than TSMC’s. The Snapdragon 865 is also expected to come in two versions, a standard version and another equipped with Snapdragon X55 5G chipset. [caption id=“attachment_5847421” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman[/caption] This will be the first chipset Samsung will be manufacturing for Qualcomm using the EUV process. The Snapdragon 845 was built by Samsung using the 10 nm process. Samsung is also using this manufacturing process on its own Exynos chips, which is believed to power the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 10. Notably, this deal between Qualcomm and Samsung isn’t final yet, but according to the report, the alliance has reached the final stage. Further, according to a report by  GSMArena, IBM has also selected Samsung’s 7 nm EUV foundries for the next generation Power processors. While TSMC lost the contract for the new Qualcomm flagship chipset, the company is reportedly already working building the Apple A13 and Kirin 985 chipsets.