Samsung's first 3nm Exynos chip nears mass production phase

Samsung initially began production of its 3nm process chips back in 2022, beating out rival TSMC to the milestone. Now almost two years later, the Android smartphone manufacturer is almost ready to go into mass production.

Announced through a joint press release with partner Synopsys, the two companies revealed they are preparing to enter the mass production phase for Samsung’s 3nm chip. Currently, the two companies are in the final design stage, which is known as “taping out.” In this process, the design is sent to the foundry so that they can create masks used for mass production. It is expected that mass production could start in the next few months.

If you’re not familiar with Synopsys, it is an electronics design automation firm. Samsung has partnered with the company so Synopsys can assist with maximizing yield and improving the chip’s performance.

Although Samsung had already been manufacturing 3nm chips before this, these new chips will be the firm’s first complex and high-performance 3nm chips. These new chips use Samsung Foundry’s 3nm Gate All Around (GAA) process.

The press release doesn’t specifically say where these high-performance 3nm chips will first appear. But there’s a possibility the first 3nm chip will come in the form of the Exynos 2500 SoC for the Galaxy S25 series.