There was a time when Samsung's Foundry division found it difficult to win orders from major chipmaking customers. It was sitting on ample capacity and burning billions of dollars every year.
The situation has changed, as the foundry has picked up significant orders, which is why reports claim that Samsung isn't too keen on offering Qualcomm price cuts for 2nm chip manufacturing.
Samsung can afford to wait it out now
Samsung has previously used competitive pricing as an incentive to lure customers away from TSMC, the world's biggest contract chipmaker.
However, Korean media is
reporting that Samsung isn't willing to offer Qualcomm low-price orders now. The two companies are said to be in discussions for 2nm chipmaking. The report mentions that the current delay in negotiations means that Qualcomm's 2nm chips may not enter production at Samsung until at least next year.
Qualcomm is said to be demanding price reductions while Samsung isn't really budging. It recently won
significant orders from Tesla and Broadcom, with further interest from other companies who either can't find capacity at TSMC or don't want to pay the higher prices it's charging.
Market analysts are of the view that Samsung doesn't appear to be engaging in low-price bidding as it did in the past to win foundry orders. The company feels confident in the demand for its 2nm process and wants to wait it out, as it feels it can now win orders at more favorable terms.
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