Qualcomm courts Samsung for dual sourcing
- Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon visited Samsung Foundry and SK Hynix to discuss dual sourcing for upcoming Snapdragon SoCs. - Talks reportedly covered 2nm foundry options and memory supplies such as LPDDR6 and HBM to reduce TSMC reliance. - Active supplier diversification highlights how manufacturing access shapes firms’ standards influence and supply-chain bargaining power (x.com).
Qualcomm Chief Executive Cristiano Amon traveled to South Korea this week for talks with Samsung Foundry and SK hynix as the chip designer weighs splitting future Snapdragon production beyond Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (digitimes.com) South Korean and industry reports say Amon’s meetings covered Samsung’s 2-nanometer manufacturing for a future Snapdragon 8-series chip and memory supply discussions with SK hynix. TrendForce said Qualcomm had already opened 2nm discussions with Samsung by January and could return flagship orders to Samsung for the first time since shifting them away in 2022. (trendforce.com) A dual-source plan would mean Qualcomm designs one chip and has more than one manufacturer build it, instead of relying on a single foundry for all leading-edge output. Reuters reported on April 23 that SK hynix now says demand for artificial-intelligence memory exceeds manufacturing capacity, which helps explain why Qualcomm is also talking directly with memory suppliers. (reuters.com) The manufacturing piece matters because Qualcomm does not own chip fabs and has to book capacity years ahead with companies that do. TSMC says its N2 process entered volume production in the fourth quarter of 2025, with the N2P upgrade scheduled for volume production in the second half of 2026. (tsmc.com) Samsung is trying to win back that business with its own 2nm line, known as SF2. Samsung’s roadmap has targeted risk production in 2025 and high-volume manufacturing in 2026, according to industry documentation tracked by SemiWiki, while third-party reports in late 2025 said Samsung had begun 2nm mass production. (semiwiki.com) Memory is the second half of the story. JEDEC, the standards body for memory, published the LPDDR6 standard in July 2025, and SK hynix said on March 10 that it had developed a 16-gigabit LPDDR6 chip on its sixth-generation 10-nanometer-class process. (design-reuse.com; news.skhynix.com) LPDDR6 is the low-power memory expected to feed future phones and on-device artificial-intelligence features, while HBM, or high-bandwidth memory, is the stacked memory used in AI servers and accelerators. SK Group said in October 2025 that SK hynix had signed a letter of intent to supply HBM for OpenAI-linked data-center buildouts, underscoring how tight advanced memory supply has become. (eng.sk.com) Qualcomm has used Samsung before and moved top Snapdragon production to TSMC after earlier Samsung-made generations drew criticism over power and heat. Recent reports say Samsung’s improved 2nm yields are part of the pitch to bring Qualcomm back, though neither company has publicly announced a new manufacturing contract. (sammobile.com; gadgets360.com) For Qualcomm, the immediate question is not only who can make the next Snapdragon first, but who can make enough of it at the right cost and with the right memory attached. Amon’s Seoul meetings suggest the answer may no longer come from one supplier alone. (msn.com)
