Right from the 2021 Pixel 6, Google has relied on Samsung’s foundry for fabricating its Tensor chips. This is despite the latter’s fabrication process being notably inferior to that of TSMC and causing overheating and battery life issues. With the Google Pixel 10 this year, the big G seems all set to switch to TSMC, a move that has reportedly left Samsung executives shocked.
Samsung’s foundry business has been struggling for a long time now. Its new-gen nodes have consistently failed to match TSMC’s cutting-edge nodes, struggling with high power consumption and low yield. Google was the only notable smartphone maker sticking to Samsung’s foundry for fabricating its Tensor chips. And the results were evident for all to see, with Tensor chips being infamous for their overheating and higher power consumption issues.
Google will reportedly fabricate the upcoming Pixel 10’s Tensor G5 chip on TSMC’s superior 3nm node, the one that Apple uses for the iPhone’s A-series chip. While there won’t be major performance gains since the company will seemingly stick to older CPU cores, the more efficient node should bring a significant improvement in battery life and thermals.
This is not a one-off move either, with reports indicating Google has locked in TSMC to fabricate its Tensor chips until at least the Pixel 14.
Google’s decision reportedly caught Samsung executives off guard (via @Jukanlosreve). In response, the company’s Electronics division is expected to hold a strategic meeting to discuss, among other topics, how to make its foundry business competitive again. The Bell‘s report says that Google’s entry into the foldable space, which Samsung pioneered and leads, also played a role in its moving away from Samsung’s foundry to TSMC.
Samsung’s foundry business has lost almost all notable customers in the last few years due to the subpar performance of its nodes. And yet, the division never took any major steps to address the shortcomings. Google’s departure has seemingly come as a shock to the company, though, and it is now apparently planning to make a series of executive and technical changes to improve competitiveness.
Blame Samsung for another major issue with Pixels
Ironically, Samsung is also the cause of another major issue with Pixel phones and Tensor chips: poor connectivity. The Samsung-supplied Exynos modems are nowhere as good as those from MediaTek and Qualcomm, consuming high power and struggling to maintain a network connection in poor coverage areas.
The Pixel 9’s Exynos 5400 modem is a step in the right direction, though, solving almost all the issues that plagued previous models. Sadly, Samsung’s foundry business never showed such significant improvements with its newer nodes.
