Thursday, May 29th 2025
Client Interest in Samsung Foundry Reportedly Buoyed by Nintendo Switch 2 SoC Production Deal
The Nintendo Switch 2 hybrid console is due to launch globally next Wednesday (June 4). The highly anticipated next-gen handheld is powered by a custom NVIDIA processor. To the surprise of many industry watchdogs, both parties have semi-recently disclosed a couple of technical details regarding their fruitful hardware collaboration. Historically, Nintendo has guarded many aspects of its past generation hardware. Throughout the 2020s, data miners and leakers have unearthed plenty of pre-release information—leading to theories about the Switch 2 chipset's origins. During the Switch 1 era, TSMC was the chosen manufacturing partner. NVIDIA's off-the-shelf Tegra X1 mobile SoC powered the first wave of Nintendo Switch (2017) devices, in 20 nm form. A 2019 revision resulted in Switch Lite and (refreshed) Switch models being equipped with a more efficient 16 nm solution, also present within 2023's premium OLED variant.
Since then, Switch 2's alleged NVIDIA Tegra T239 SoC was linked to a Samsung 8 nm node process. Earlier this month, extremely brave Chinese leakers produced "full die shot" evidence of South Korean foundry origins. Bloomberg insider news articles have implied that Samsung Semi's mature 8 nm FinFET node is better suited—rather than an equivalent TSMC product—for the Switch 2's custom NVIDIA chipset. Unnamed sources have mentioned critical factors; namely stable production and process compatibility. Industry moles reckon that Samsung leadership is actively and aggressively pushing for a longer Switch 2 chipset production deal. Renewed terms could include a future die shrink; pre-launch analysis indicates a sizeable 207 mm² footprint. Beyond foundry biz negotiations, additional murmurs suggest company executives dangling an OLED panel supply agreement. Industry experts have viewed Samsung's key entry—into the gaming console chip market—as a seismic development. A DigiTimes article dives into a so-called "tripartite cooperation"—involving Nintendo, NVIDIA, and the South Korean semiconductor giant. The Samsung Foundry has floundered and struggled in recent times, but is keen to catch up with its arch rival. Fresh rumors have AMD and Sony considering Samsung's chip making channels; possibly with futuristic PlayStation hardware in mind.
Sources:
DigiTimes, Wccftech, Tom's Guide, TweakTown
Since then, Switch 2's alleged NVIDIA Tegra T239 SoC was linked to a Samsung 8 nm node process. Earlier this month, extremely brave Chinese leakers produced "full die shot" evidence of South Korean foundry origins. Bloomberg insider news articles have implied that Samsung Semi's mature 8 nm FinFET node is better suited—rather than an equivalent TSMC product—for the Switch 2's custom NVIDIA chipset. Unnamed sources have mentioned critical factors; namely stable production and process compatibility. Industry moles reckon that Samsung leadership is actively and aggressively pushing for a longer Switch 2 chipset production deal. Renewed terms could include a future die shrink; pre-launch analysis indicates a sizeable 207 mm² footprint. Beyond foundry biz negotiations, additional murmurs suggest company executives dangling an OLED panel supply agreement. Industry experts have viewed Samsung's key entry—into the gaming console chip market—as a seismic development. A DigiTimes article dives into a so-called "tripartite cooperation"—involving Nintendo, NVIDIA, and the South Korean semiconductor giant. The Samsung Foundry has floundered and struggled in recent times, but is keen to catch up with its arch rival. Fresh rumors have AMD and Sony considering Samsung's chip making channels; possibly with futuristic PlayStation hardware in mind.
12 Comments on Client Interest in Samsung Foundry Reportedly Buoyed by Nintendo Switch 2 SoC Production Deal
But if the hardware collabs do happen, we can call the new gamr tois "SammySwitch" and "PlayGate" hahahaha..:)
5nm that Snapdragon 888, Exynos 2100 and Google G1 used a long time ago?
4nm that Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 used and later abandoned due to yield/performance issues?
3nm that Samsung even cant make enough of their own Exynos 2500 to ship it outside South-Korea?
2nm that's a pipe dream considering struggling 3nm yields?
Qualcomm already abandoned them after the 4nm fiasco. Google just signed a five year contract with TSMC to produce future Tensor chips for their Pixel devices and AMD/Nvidia/Apple all need cutting edge nodes that only TSMC offers with good yields.
Samsung even stumbled heavily with their HBM3e that others aced. This used to be their bread and butter but now they cant even get that right and who knows about their HBM4. Plus in the memory space there are more powerful competitors compared to process node space.
Samsung also bungled their first gen DDR5 and their SSD's are also nothing special these days.
Yet i constantly see puff piece articles stating how everyone is evaluating Samsung for their future products and how Samsung will score big any day now.
Nothing ever comes of it because of course companies evaluate and even produce test chips on Samsung's newest nodes. The fact that none of them have actually used Samsung's nodes in last few years should tell you everything about Samsung's performance.
Capacity can be increased/decreased depending on contracts.No one is willing to make anything there yet their foundry has high utilization rate?
The customer chooses the right process for their needs/targets/price/availability ...etc, there is nothing "outdated" about Samsung's 8nm.Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is 5nm, not 4nm.Thats your guess, not a fact.You do know that Samsung 2nm is just a renamed 3rd gen 3nm process right?Get your facts straight, Qualcomm still makes new chips on Samsung 4nm, and it was Google's plan from the beginning to eventually design their own chips, nothing to do with Samsung Foundry.
Samsung also has utilization issues on their US fabs on newer nodes. Likely due to lack of interest from customers and poor yields.
This is a point i strongly disagree with. Samsung does have fab utilization issues and no wonder if none of the bigger companies actually make anything in there in volume.Doesn't change the fact that Qualcomm abandoned Samsung halfway trough SD8 G1 and went with TSMC.
This is unusual because usually that does not happen. Samsung's node must have been really bad at the time.Reports are conflicting. Some say it's restricted top SK, Others say that it does launch worldwide (albeit only in Flip 7 model).I dont believe anything Samsung claims.Which new chips? I only found Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 that is an entry level chip and several years old at that.
Likely this too will end soon. As for Google - you think it was Google's plan to go with more expensive TSMC? I doubt that.
Just excuses and grasping at straws here. As much is i want competition to TSMC i dont see the point in sugarcoating it's competitors when they are not delivering.
At my work, we buy Spartan 7 FPGA's from AMD by the hundreds. They are built on 28nm.
Global Foundries did almost $7B of revenue in 2024 and their most advanced node seems to be only 12nm.
The real issue is the huge investment for the pursuit of bleeding edge to only not be able to sell anything on it while it is bleeding edge.