The Q1 2025 earnings revealed Samsung’s goal revolving around its foundry business, and more specifically, the 2nm GAA process. While the company has not highlighted which stage it currently occupies for its next-generation technology, during the quarterly announcement, the Korean behemoth stated that it is targeting the second half of 2025 to initiate full-scale production. During this time, it will also attempt to secure lucrative clients to keep pace with TSMC, which started accepting 2nm wafer orders earlier this month.
No word on which customers will place orders for Samsung’s 2nm GAA wafers, but the company was said to be in talks with Qualcomm
Minimizing its losses for the 3nm GAA technology, Samsung aims to push through the development of 2nm GAA wafers, and during the trial production phase of the Exynos 2600, the yields were reportedly at 30 percent. During the Q1 2025 earnings’ announcement, Samsung provided the following details on where its current goals lie with its bleeding-edge process.
Earnings for the Foundry Business were muted due to sluggish seasonal mobile demand, inventory adjustments and stagnant fab utilization. However, the Business focused on the 2nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) process, improving yields and stabilizing the line while keeping the program on schedule, while also securing additional sub-5nm orders, specifically the 2nm and 4nm nodes for AI and HPC applications.
In Q2 2025, the Business will stabilize its 2nm process production and drive earnings improvement by actively addressing strong mobile and automotive demand in the United States. Looking ahead to H2 2025, the Foundry Business aims to start 2nm mass production and secure major 2nm orders and strengthen its specialty process portfolio on mature nodes.
Those who have been following Samsung’s quarterly earnings should be used to hearing about the firm’s commitment to jump-starting its next-generation processes, but the company always ends up falling short. With its 2nm GAA technology, there is some sliver of hope, and the possibility that Samsung concludes talks with Qualcomm on a positive node and ends up successfully producing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 for Galaxy, which will power the 2026 flagship series.
The Korean foundry was previously reported to have started installing equipment necessary for a 2nm GAA line at its ‘S3’ chain in the Hwaseong plant during the fourth quarter of last year, with analysts estimating in February that Samsung has around 10 months remaining to initiate mass production. We will revisit the intended production period later in the year and inform our readers about Samsung’s progress, so stay tuned.
News Source: Samsung
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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