One gets the impression that in its desire to start developing lithography with ultra-high ultraviolet radiation (EUV) within the 7-nm technology, Samsung has spoiled its relations with some customers, although in the 14-nm technology it attracted even NVIDIA, which ordered Koreans to produce a junior graphic Processor with Pascal architecture. As explained by the Korean publication ET News , now Samsung is leaving for TSMC one more major client in the person of Qualcomm, who needs 7-nm processors. The samples of the latest TSMC will be produced by September, they are being developed from the middle of last year, and the corresponding announcement will be made either by the end of this year or by the beginning of the next.
The reason for switching Qualcomm from Samsung to TSMC is not only a delay with the development of 7-nm technology by a Korean contractor, but also the lack of Samsung's desirable for Qualcomm packaging technology for mobile processors FoWLP, which TSMC already uses when executing Apple's orders. The latter, by the way, also for a long time was a client of Samsung, with which it regularly sued.
It is noteworthy that Samsung will use 8 nm technology (in fact, the upgraded version of the 10-nm process technology) to release the main assortment of its next-generation mobile processors, but the processor for the flagship smartphone Galaxy Note will be released on 7-nm technology. This should happen no earlier than the second half of next year.