Samsung’s 2nm foundry line has finally started producing some proper-sized yields.
According to Business Korea, yields have finally hit more than 60 per cent, up from around 20 per cent in the second half of 2025.
The best gains are said to be on chips for bitcoin miners, where Samsung Electronics Foundry Division is building parts for China’s Canaan and MicroBT. The yield has more than tripled in roughly two quarters, which is the difference between a demo and a business.
TSMC is still the foundry yardstick, with 2nm yields said to sit around 60 to 70 per cent, but Samsung is at least in the same postcode now. Samsung’s Exynos 2600 yield is still said to be below 50 per cent, even if it is improving compared with earlier runs.
For those not in the know, yield is the share of good chips per wafer, so 60 per cent means 60 working parts out of 100. At 2nm, that number is hard to push up because the process is nasty and the margin for error is tiny.
Samsung is putting effort into yield because it feeds directly into cost and performance, and it helps attract new orders when customers are shopping for leading-edge capacity.
An industry representative said that “the application of advanced chips below 5㎚ to information technology (IT) devices has been increasing recently… Samsung Electronics’ 2㎚ other customers are likely to inquire about consignment if it becomes known that process yields have increased”.
Samsung already has a major headline deal on the books, with Tesla’s AI6 chip tied to a US$16.5 billion contract pegged at about 24 trillion won (€13.8bn).
