Qualcomm typically uses different companies to actually manufacturer their processors, despite handling all of the chip’s design process. Last year they shifted to TSMC for production of the Snapdragon 855, although Samsung shows up in the mix every so often.
So this year with Samsung shifting more of their models to use Qualcomm’s speedy Snapdragon 865 CPU, you’d think Samsung would be handling manufacturing, too, right? Well, you’d be wrong.
Despite apparently fully committing to the Snapdragon 865 in favor of its own CPUs, Qualcomm doesn’t actually trust Samsung to do the manufacturing. And it’s not because Samsung wouldn’t do a good job, either, but because Qualcomm is worried that Samsung would use that as an opportunity to improve its own processor designs. Since Samsung is stepping out of the custom CPU core game, and the newest Exynos 990 is apparently not able to stay toe-to-toe with the Snapdragon 865, Qualcomm thinks they have Samsung’s CPU division on the ropes and they don’t want to make any mistakes.
That’s cold, but it’s business. Qualcomm still plans to use Samsung to manufacture some of their mid-range chips, like the Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 765 5G, but TSMC will be handling the flagship product for another year. With a jump to 5nm processes expected to come next year, that’ll give Samsung another opportunity to win the responsibilities back, but so long as TSMC stays competitive, they’ll likely keep Qualcomm’s business.
If you’re not happy with Qualcomm’s aggressively large share of the flagship phone market, well, don’t hold your breath on things changing anytime soon.