Qualcomm May No Longer Give Snapdragon 865 Manufacturing To Samsung

The majority of Android manufacturers these days use Qualcomm Snapdragon chips to power their smartphones except Huawei and some Samsung smartphones. Both tech companies are capable of making their silicon chips to power some of its products. A new report claims that Qualcomm may not give Samsung its next-generation Snapdragon 865 chipset out of fear that the Seoul-based tech and electronics giant might know its design drawings and trade secrets.

Earlier reports suggested that the next-generation smartphone series from Samsung, the Galaxy S11 series, would house the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset. Samsung reportedly thinks that the latest chipset from Qualcomm is far better than its own Exynos 990 chips. Moreover, Samsung reportedly wants to raise its business in chip foundry, and the only way to do it is by taking new orders from Qualcomm, reports Wccftech.

Qualcomm plans to maintain its lead over Samsung, and to achieve that, Snapdragon 865 orders reportedly are given to TSMC instead of Samsung, reports Business Korea. Earlier reports initially claimed that Samsung would make the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chips. However, Qualcomm gave it to TSMC not because it thinks TSMC is any better but because it does not want Samsung to learn about its trade secrets, says Wccftech.

Samsung may possibly use design drawings and trade secrets of Qualcomm to improve its own Exynos chipset, the report adds. Meanwhile, the manufacturing of the mid-tier Snapdragon 765G and Snapdragon 765 stays with Samsung, according to the report. It still sounds like good business for Samsung maintaining the production of SD 765 and SD 765G.

Samsung already shut down its custom core development facility because of inferior performance and efficiency, according to wccftech. While Qualcomm may have nothing to worry about Samsung being a threat, it's alleged decision to give the manufacturing of SD865 to TSMC reflects its caution. Aside from guarding its very own intellectual property and business, not giving the manufacturing to Samsung sounds like a practical choice.

Qualcomm earlier unveiled the Snapdragon 865 chipset, which is the successor of the Snapdragon 855. It represents the latest flagship chipset offering from the American chipmaker. The Snapdragon 865 features the latest Cortex-A77 CPU cores that replace the A76-based IP.