Samsung is reported to have won an order to manufacture Qualcomm’s mobile application processor (AP) for 5G budget smartphones, reports Yonhap news agency.
Samsung is likely to be a producer of the 5G version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 4-series processors that are expected to be available in the market next year.

Smartphone makers such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Motorola have decided to use Qualcomm’s new chipset for their products.

Samsung said it plans to enhance its foundry capacity at the company’s new production line in Pyeongtaek, Korea, to meet growing global demand for cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) solutions.

Samsung recently added a new EUV-dedicated V1 line in Hwaseong, Korea, to its foundry network. The new Pyeongtaek facility will be starting full operation in 2021 and Samsung’s foundry capacity based on EUV is expected to increase significantly.

Samsung is scheduled to start mass production of 5nm EUV process in the Hwaseong fab in the second half of this year.

With the addition of the Pyeongtaek fab, Samsung will have seven foundry production lines located in South Korea and the United States, comprised of six 12-inch lines and one 8-inch line.

Last month, Samsung said it will manufacture IBM’s POWER 10 chip.

Earlier this month, industry sources said Samsung will fabricate Nvidia’s new RTX 3000 series graphics processing units.

Samsung, the world’s largest memory chip producer, trails far behind TSMC in the foundry market.

Samsung is estimated to have 17.4 percent market share in the global foundry industry in the third quarter of the year, while TSMC is expected to continue its dominance with 53.9 percent share, according to market researcher TrendForce.

Samsung will invest $112 billion to become the world’s No. 1 logic chipmaker by 2030 and bolster its competitiveness in the system LSI and foundry businesses.