Currently, 2nm technology is seen by the industry as a key breakthrough in the next generation semiconductor manufacturing process, with the advantages of providing higher performance and lower power consumption for chips.

At present, the representative manufacturers joining the 2nm chip war include TSMC, Samsung, Intel and Foundry model startup Rapidus.

Rapidus: The cost of a 2nm chip is 10 times that of mainstream chips in Japan currently

According to the data, Rapidus was founded in November 2022 with the joint investment of eight Japanese enterprises, including Sony Group, Toyota, Softbank, Armour and Mitsubishi Nippon Electric. In December of the same year, Rapidus announced the establishment of a strategic partnership with IBM to jointly develop 2nm chip production technology.

In May of this year, Rapidus announced its latest production plan, which is expected to pilot produce 2nm chips in 2025. The start of production on the trial production line is expected to be around March April 2025. Rapidus' 2nm chip factory located in Chitose City, Hokkaido aims to begin mass production in 2027.

Recently, according to Nikkei News, Rapidus CEO Junichi Koike predicts that the production cost of 2-nanometer chips in the future will significantly increase compared to the mainstream chips currently produced by Japanese factories, with a gap of up to 10 times.

Kochi Chunyi emphasized that as of April, Rapidus has recruited 100 semiconductor engineers and plans to double it by the end of the year. The first batch of engineers are receiving training at IBM's Albany NanoTech Complex; Approximately 300-500 engineers are required to enter trial production in 2025.

Intel: New Customer for Intel 18A Program

Since announcing the implementation of the IDM2.0 strategy, Intel has spared no effort to expand its Foundry model business and announced a number of factory building plans. Intel's goal is to surpass Samsung and become the world's second largest Foundry model.

In the competition for advanced manufacturing processes, Intel is also not willing to be outdone and has joined the 2nm chip development track. Previously, Intel modified the naming of important process nodes and proposed the goal of "four years and five process nodes", namely Intel 7, Intel 4, Intel 3, Intel 20A, and Intel 18A, with Intel 20A and Intel 18A corresponding to 2nm and 1.8nm processes, respectively.

According to Wang Rui, President and Chairman of Intel China, Intel has completed the development of Intel 20A and Intel 18A process processes. Intel stated that it will mass produce Intel 20A and Intel 18A in 2024. According to Intel, the performance of Intel 18A will surpass that of TSMC and Samsung's 2nm process.

At an online event held in June this year, Intel announced that the 18A process will be mass-produced in the second half of 2024 and plans to launch at least 5 processors by 2025.

The latest news is that Intel officially announced that it will collaborate with Ericsson to manufacture customized chips for Ericsson's 5G network devices using its state-of-the-art Intel 18A process. Intel stated that Ericsson was one of Intel's first external customer chips to use this technology.

Samsung: Starting with 2nm technology, surpassing TSMC within 5 years

As we all know, Samsung is the second largest Foundry model in the world, ranking second only to TSMC. In terms of advanced process research and development, both sides are also secretly competing, and the focus of the competition has continued until the 2nm advanced process.

On July 27th, Samsung Electronics stated in its latest Q2 financial report that the development of 2-nanometer GAA technology is on track and progressing smoothly.

Previously, Samsung had announced the timeline for mass production of 2 nanometer advanced process semiconductor products: it is expected to start mass production of 2 nanometer process semiconductor products in 2025. At the "2023 Foundry model forum" held in Silicon Valley, California, USA at the end of June this year, Samsung put forward a specific timetable for semiconductor with 2nm process: first use this technology for mobile terminals from 2025; It will be applicable to high-performance Computer cluster (HPC) by 2026; And expand its use to automotive chips in 2027.

Compared with the current state-of-the-art 3-nanometer technology, Samsung Electronics' 2-nanometer process performance will be improved by 12%, efficiency will be improved by 25%, and area will be reduced by 5%.

Samsung DS Division President Kyung Kye hyun previously stated that Samsung plans to surpass TSMC, with the goal of starting with a 2-nanometer process that uses GAA technology earlier than TSMC, and predicts that it will surpass TSMC within 5 years.

TSMC: Kaohsiung Factory Renovated to a 2 Nano Factory?

As the world's largest Foundry model of wafers, TSMC has introduced its mass production schedule of 2nm advanced manufacturing process for many times.

In early July of this year, TSMC held a press conference in Japan on the latest process technology and reiterated the 2-nanometer process roadmap again: N2 technology development in the 2nm process is progressing in an orderly manner, and is expected to be mass-produced in 2025.

It is worth mentioning that in the past two months, there have been frequent rumors in the market about TSMC's 2nm process.

For example, in June this year, market news said that TSMC had begun to prepare for trial production of 2nm products for Apple and Nvidia; In July, TSMC's supply chain revealed that it had notified equipment manufacturers to start delivering 2nm related machines in the third quarter of next year. Some sources also revealed that TSMC will change its factory construction plan in Kaohsiung to respond to the AI wave, changing from the original mature process to a more advanced 2nm process, with a planned mass production in the second half of 2025.

According to TSMC's previous introduction, compared to the 3nm process technology, the 2nm technology has a speed of 10-15% faster at the same power consumption; Reduce power consumption by 25-30% at the same speed, while increasing chip density by over 15%.

In this advanced manufacturing process competition, the four independent OEM manufacturers mentioned above seem to have formed a set of "dominoes", and whether they can successfully overthrow them in the future remains to be seen!