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Samsung Cuts 2 nm Node Pricing by 33% in TSMC Competition Push

Samsung has cut its 2 nm wafer prices to $20,000 offering a 33% discount compared to TSMC's expected $30,000 per wafer cost, industry reports say. The company aims to draw customers to its underused advanced manufacturing capacity. The Korean chipmaker faces big pressure to get returns on...

www.techpowerup.com

Samsung has cut its 2 nm wafer prices to $20,000 offering a 33% discount compared to TSMC's expected $30,000 per wafer cost, industry reports say. The company aims to draw customers to its underused advanced manufacturing capacity. The Korean chipmaker faces big pressure to get returns on billions it put into cutting-edge fabrication plants across South Korea and the United States. With production lines running below capacity due to few orders, Samsung has started using bold pricing tactics to compete with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's strong market position. Just recently, the company landed a $16.5 billion deal with Tesla to make next-gen AI chips. People in the industry think this team-up might grow to include more chances maybe even making chips for Elon Musk's xAI project.

TSMC keeps its lead in advanced node manufacturing getting major clients like NVIDIA and AMD for its 2 nm process. The Taiwanese foundry plans to start mass production of 2 nm chips in Q4 2025 even with record-high wafer prices at $30,000 per unit. Samsung has always used lower prices to take on TSMC's control of the market, and it seems to remain on the same strategy with discounts up to 33% cheaper than TSMC's prices for similar 2 nm chip-making services.

Of course, there is the problem that Samsung's N2 is probably not as good as TSMC's N2, but with such a discount it might be worth it for consumer products. While TSMC's N2 is used for AI, servers, workstations and high-end hardware.
This could mean consoles and GPU prices might stop rising. Maybe even lower a bit.
Here is hopping that Samsung's 2nm is decent enough.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Hope they reserve a percent of the time for gaming stuff.
A Thursday between 9AM to 9:15 AM just for gaming chips.
Come on industry, throw us gamers a bone.

 

[mckmas8808]

Isn't Tesla working with Samsung now too. Is their AI6 chip going to be 2nm or 3nm?

 

[Scrawnton]

Switch 2 Lite about to be hella good.

 

[Det]

There could even be a semiconductor crash...
Imagine if Intel, Samsung, and the Chinese could compete with TSMC?
From one factory, we'd jump to four.

The Chinese have engineers and resources...

They get the rest through espionage, and it's also possible for someone to "leak" the information just to "level the playing field," just like they did when they leaked information about the atomic bomb to the Soviets.

 

[Imtjnotu]

I wonder what thermal data and and true efficiency is. The promised 25% efficiency over 3nm sounds really good

 

[The Mad Draklor]

Fingers crossed that it's good. Otherwise, we will be at the mercy of TSMC when it comes to pricing.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

omg fabs are so hot this season

but may also mean nations are anticipating war ayyy

 

[Soodanim]

Good. Let's hope that consumers get to benefit from competitive pricing.

Not that it will help nVidia or AMD, let's be honest. NV will probably increase prices because their minus key is broken and AMD don't undercut by enough.