Exynos is not a point! Korean media pointed out that Samsung was hit by NTD

The heavy cost pressure on Samsung electronic smartphone business in Korea is mainly due to the rapid increase in the price of core parts mobile application processors (APs). Industry analysts pointed out that although Samsung can reduce purchasing costs by expanding its "Exynos" chip loading ratio, considering product performance and marketability, it will still be difficult to replace Qualcomm chips in the short term. At present, the market is more concerned about the structural changes in the advanced crystalline foundry supply chain, which is regarded as a deeper factor affecting the rise in AP procurement costs.

According to the article report of Korean media ZDNet Korea, Samsung's average mobile AP purchase price in the first half of the year rose by about 12% compared with the same period in 2024. Taking the flagship mobile phone "Galaxy S25" series launched in the first quarter of 2025 as an example, the entire number is equipped with the "Snapdragon 8 Elite" AP designed by Qualcomm in the United States. Although Samsung's internal System LSI and the Cylinder Foundry Department themselves designed and produced "Exynos" AP, it is still chosen to use Qualcomm chips in order to ensure performance and stability. The industry believes that if Samsung can increase the loading ratio of Exynos chips, it will help solve the pressure of AP purchase costs.

The industry generally believes that the structural factors of advanced crystalline foundry market have a greater impact on the rise in AP purchase costs. At present, the mass production of the most cutting-edge AP has been almost completely destroyed by Taiwan's Taiwan power supply and has achieved extremely high profits. For example, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite is built using the second-generation 3nm (N3E) process of tyrene. The price per wafer for this process is US$18,500, which is about 23% more expensive than the previous 4/5 nanometer process. In addition, NTD has recently released a high price for the main process including 3 nanometers to increase by up to 8%, which brings a lot of benefits.

The report quoted Korean market analysts as saying that since there is currently no NTEM replacement manufacturer in the market, customers will not object to the price. Qualcomm's new products will reflect the price at the end of the year, which is a negative impact on smart phone manufacturers. Taiwan Power Corporation has uniquely occupied a position in advanced crystalline foundry and maintained top-notch profits. The operating profit rate in the second quarter reached 49.6%, which is about 30% higher than Qualcomm's QCT department's QCT business with mobile AP business.

The rupture structure has led to a rise in AP prices, which will continue to become bad as the process progresses. Qualcomm's "Snapdragon 8 Elite 2" will adopt the third-generation 3nm (N3P) process of NTF at the end of the year, and the price will be higher than that of the N3E. If tyrene is 2 nanometers, the price per wafer will reach US$30,000. Even though Samsung's price is cheaper than Telco, considering the production cost, it is very likely that the increase in the single price is similar to Telco. Semiconductor market sources revealed that the cost of crystalline processing increases by at least 10% to 15% for every generation of improved crystalline processing, but the price of smart phones is limited, which generally puts AP designers in two difficulties.

The single price of smart phone AP can only be solved after the cutting-edge wafer foundry under the high-profit strategy of NTU is broken. Therefore, the technical strength and market improvement of Samsung crystal circle OEM will become the most important variable. Recently, Samsung and electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla signed a US$6.5 billion semiconductor foundry contract to produce "AI6" chips with 2 nanometers for Tesla's mass production of "AI6" chips for automatic driving, robots and data centers.

In addition, Apple has also decided to produce a new generation of image sensors in Samsung Electronics' crystal foundry factory in Austin, Texas, USA. If Samsung Crystal OEM can successfully produce chips for these global technology giants, it will help them win more customers. For customers, this also means that they can "get along the way" between Taiwan Power and Samsung Crystal OEM to compete for a lower purchase price, thereby breaking the current sluggish situation.