Samsung’s SF2 technology could lure AMD away from TSMC

If Samsung and AMD shake hands on this deal, it would mark a significant milestone for Samsung, which has been seeking to challenge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the market leader in semiconductor manufacturing.

Samsung is currently in talks with US chip maker AMD about producing next-generation processors.

The possible deal could be a win-win case for both companies, as the current discussion focuses on Samsung’s 2-nanometer (N2) chip technology, which could also be used to make AMD server chips. They would include EPYC chips – the flagship server processors that AMD produces. They’re valued highly and sold in large numbers for Amazon, Microsoft, and Google cloud data centres.

For Samsung, this would be a significant boost in its bid to challenge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the dominant player in the global foundry market. TSMC is the company that produces chips for industry leaders such as Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and AMD itself – an A-list of clients that Samsung struggles to compete with.

TSMC has recently announced that it’s limiting its production capacity, as demand for chips has grown faster than the company can manufacture them or build new factories. The company’s Chairman and CEO, C. C. Wei, said in November that their capacity is three times short of what its major customers plan to consume.

TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei said advanced process capacity is “not enough, not enough, still not enough” as customer demand continues to far outpace expectations, during an SIA awards ceremony Friday, media report, quoting him saying “TSMC’s capacity is around 3-times short (3X)”.…

undefined Dan Nystedt (@dnystedt) November 24, 2025

Because Samsung has improved its chip manufacturing, companies are now more likely to turn to the South Korean company as an alternative to TSMC.

South Korea’s Sedaily reports that Samsung and AMD are evaluating whether the SF2 process can meet AMD’s performance requirements. Whether the companies decide to ink a new deal should be clear by early next year.

In the meantime, industry analysts suggest that AMD’s EPYC “Venice” data-centre processors are the most likely to appear on Samsung’s production line. Experts predict that chip designers may increasingly become open to splitting chip production between two companies, as relying on a single supplier becomes riskier amid surging global demand.

However, TSMC is not falling behind either. On December 5th, the company announced that it is also in discussions with Nvidia to produce its Blackwell artificial intelligence chips at the contract manufacturer's new plant in Arizona, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

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