Samsung's 5nm struggles could delay Qualcomm 5G chips - report

• DigiTimes sources say Samsung (OTC:SSNNF,OTC:SSNLF) is struggling to raise 5nm process yield rates.
• Industry sources say Samsung's delay could impact the launch of Qualcomm's (QCOM -0.2%) next-generation flagship 5G mobile chip series, which previous reports have identified as the Snapdragon 875G. Samsung could also be splitting the orders for the X60 5G modem with TSMC.
• In April's Q1 results, Samsung said it would start mass production of the chips in Q2 using its own EUV process.
• But the company didn't get ASML's EUV equipment installed until the end of June, putting the process in the very early stages.
• Last week, rival TSMC said it expected 5nm process tech to account for about 8% of its total wafer revenue for the year (prior: 10%) and lifted its FY capex to $16-17B.

Comments

[kaszpore]

Is there any estimation how the demand and supply of 5 nm manufacturing capacity compare to each other?

[woonm]

I heard Samsung skip the 5nm node and directly went to 3 nm. They might have problem to have high yield for 7 nm.

[EBIX EBUCKS]

Ongoing disputes and negotiations regarding the first responder priority portion of the 5G spectrum could delay the launch of 5G too, yet nobody ever seems to consider or discuss that.

[vkvraju]

@Blunder Boy 5G is already live and kicking. What delay are you referring to?

[EBIX EBUCKS]

An enhanced 4G is available in limited areas and being marketed as 5G, but it is nowhere close to what is targeted in real 5G.

[dima_b]

"5G" is a sequence of consecutive releases that continue the long-term evolution of the 3GPP spec past Release 14 (the last release under the "4G" moniker). So what do you consider "real 5G"?

[TMFfan]

With Huawei kicked out of TSMC, there is capacity for others like QCOM-

[101StockEnthusiast101]

I believe, Qualcomm has secured 5nm production capacity at both TSMC and Samsung. TSMC processes are generally superior to Samsung and hence all big the bigwigs, like Apple, Nvidia, and Qualcomm fiercely compete with each other to secure capacity.

We should get more clarification on this in the next earnings call.

[Retired Fernando]

I don't see it. It means Samsung won't be the first. That is a problem for Samsung, not big issue for QCOM.

[User 47732963]

Long TSM. Keep this party going and charge more to Samsung for send trying to fit them into the schedule. Hope they have enough wafers

[TMFfan]

Long QCOM. Buy on any dip