For those who have been following the semiconductor industry for the last few months it’s been quite clear that Samsung Foundry has been struggling. Now, a recent set of interviews with current and former Samsung employees reveals that the company might be in more hot water than initially anticipated.
For the uninitiated, Samsung Foundry is the company’s semiconductor manufacturing division. Samsung has long dreamt of overtaking TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) and the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets with its own Exynos line of processors. Doing so would mean cheaper manufacturing costs for its phones and better integration with its software similar to Apple’s devices.
But yield issues continue to haunt Samsung Foundry: with up to 90 percent of chips being defects in every batch. This has forced Samsung time and time again to abandon Exynos and go with Snapdragon, which it will also be doing for its upcoming Galaxy S25 lineup of phones. Samsung’s dreams of perfecting and producing its own 1.4 nm chipsets by 2027 also looks to be a pipe dream for now.
Some of the results of the aforementioned interview. | Image credit — Damnangyi
A few days ago YouTuber and former Samsung employee Damnangyi uploaded a video (Korean audio) in which they discussed their interviews with over a dozen other Samsung employees. Damnangyi currently works at Qualcomm in the U.S.
Seven former and 24 current employees all agreed that Samsung was in crisis. Most of the interviewees said that the pace of technological innovation at Samsung was slow, citing problems with leadership’s short-sightedness as the main cause. Others also said that management’s dealings with employees left a lot to be desired.
The interview came 10 days after Samsung publicly apologized for a slowed pace of innovation and less than a month after the company’s plant in Taylor, Texas was abandoned. This plant hadn’t even become fully operational before Samsung withdrew its personnel as yield issues remained unsolved.
On the bright side, renowned Samsung tipster Ice Universe claims that the Snapdragon 8 Elite which will power the Galaxy S25 Ultra is going to be a massive upgrade over the previous flagship. So even if Samsung is in crisis it’s still making some of the best phones you can buy today.
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Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.
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