Samsung Says It Will Trade Blows With TSMC by Launching 2nm in 2025

Samsung and TSMC have been involved in a silicon arms race for some time now, as the two companies are direct competitors in the external foundry world. Both have made chips for Apple and Nvidia in the past and are now vying for dominance by talking about their next-generation plans a few years in advance. TSMC has already discussed its 2nm plans, saying this node will be functional in 2025. Now Samsung has announced it'll also be leaping to 2nm in 2025, seemingly starting a tit-for-tat with its biggest rival. Of course, Intel is in the mix here, too, though given its track record, it is on a "wait and see" list for node jumps until it's proven it can achieve what it's promised.

Samsung has a bit of a head start on TSMC, at least in 3nm silicon. It was first out of the gate in July 2022 with an announcement that 3nm production had begun. It announced it was leaving FinFET behind and switching to 3nm gate-all-around (GAA) transistors, where both TSMC and Intel are also headed. TSMC announced 3nm production in the final days of 2022 and is only now beginning to ramp production, though Apple has reportedly purchased the entirety of the first batch. TSMC is still using FinFET for its 3nm chips, which it calls FinFlex due to the customizable nature of its architecture. It's unclear which companies have placed orders for Samsung's 3nm products.

Samsung's nanosheet design is called MBCFET. Credit: Samsung

According to Wccftech, Samsung switched to GAAFET now to get a head start on resolving its engineering difficulties, as it's the first transistor design that's not based on FinFET in over a decade. TSMC will have to discover those when it begins its 2nm production in earnest in the coming years. Both companies are taking similar paths to 2nm, though, with Samsung choosing MBCFET, which stands for Multi-Bridge Channel Field Effect Transistor, a nanosheet design. TSMC will also be using nanosheets when it hits 2nm, while Intel is opting for a RibbonFET design for its 20A process, which is supposedly coming in 2024.

Samsung announced its plans at a recent Foundry Forum event in San Jose, stating its first 2nm products will be made for smartphones and will ship in 2025. TSMC updated its roadmap in April, saying it would begin 2nm production in 2025 with a nanosheet design. It would then add backside power delivery to a future version.

For its part, Intel recently announced it already has backside power delivery working on a prototype chip, which would put it two years ahead of Samsung and TSMC. Of course, that's if Intel can hit its launch target of the first half of 2024 with its 20A process.