Samsung Foundry wins first 2nm AI chip order, and stole a TSMC client in the process

Samsung Foundry has proudly announced that it has secured its first 2nm AI chip order from a Japanese company, taking one of TSMC's long-standing customers away.

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In a new press release, the South Korean electronics giant said it secured a Japanese company to fab its new 2nm AI chip, with Taejoong Song, Corporate VP at Samsung Electronics explaining: "This order is pivotal as it validates Samsung's 2nm GAA process technology and Advanced Package technology as an ideal solution for next-generation AI accelerators. We are committed to closely collaborating with our customers ensuring that the high performance and low power characteristics of our products are fully realized".

The Japanese company in question is Preferred Networks, a leading Japanese AI company that is involved the R&D focused on deep learning workloads. Preferred Networks is heading towards vertically integrating "the AI value chain from chips to supercomputers" with the Japanese company providing a medium for businesses to have their own in-house AI clusters.

Junichiro Makino, VP and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Computing Architecture at Preferred Networks, said: "We are excited to lead in AI accelerator technology with Samsung Electronics' 2nm GAA process. This solution will significantly support Preferred Networks' ongoing efforts to build highly energy-efficient, high-performance computing hardware that meets the ever-growing computing demands from generative AI technologies, especially large language models".

• Read more: Samsung Foundry renames SF3 process node to SF2, rewrites contracts changing 3nm to 2nm
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• Read more: Apple executives 'secretly visit' TSMC to secure first batch of 2nm production capacity

Preferred Networks will possibly use Samsung's new 2.5C packaging technology called Interposer-Cube S, which would be an important step for both the Japanese company ordering the new AI chip, and Samsung Foundry to boast to its semiconductor competitors.