Rumor: Possible loss of Apple orders may force Samsung to delay construction of new chip fab

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
A tenuous rumor out of Asia on Wednesday claims Samsung may delay building a new chip fabrication facility for advanced mobile processors due to a suspected diversification in Apple's supply chain.

Citing "industry sources," the sometimes reliable DigiTimes said Samsung is "likely" to put off construction of the new plant, allegedly called "Line-17," over the possibility that the company will lose chip orders from Apple in the coming months.

According to sources, the South Korean electronics giant is looking to build the plant in its home country, which would be a major change from the current setup which has Samsung's Austin, Texas factory churning out Apple's A-series chips.

The new facility, reportedly a $3.7 billon to $5.5 billion investment, is scheduled to start production in the beginning of 2014 and will be making mobile CPUs based on advanced 20-nanometer and 14-nanometer processes.

Chipworks
Samsung-built A6X SoC found in Apple's fourth-generation iPad. | Source: Chipworks


Samsung acts as the forge for the system-on-chips used in iOS devices, however recent rumblings have suggested that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will be taking over some fabrication duties for Apple's next-generation silicon by late 2013. Reports of the purported switch have been circulating for well over a year, however no official announcement has been made, and Samsung continues to be the exclusive manufacturer of the Apple-designed processors.

As for the TSMC rumor, the sources said Apple will take delivery of a trial run of SoCs built on the firm's 20nm process in early 2013.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    I would expect Samsung to be building for their own demand. Unless that's expected to drop....
  • Reply 2 of 13
    fake_william_shatnerfake_william_shatner Posts: 660member


    Translation; we pissed off our biggest customer and they've replaced our product.

  • Reply 3 of 13
    storneostorneo Posts: 101member


    Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

     

  • Reply 4 of 13
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by storneo View Post

    Don't bite the hand that feeds you.


     


    They ate the hand and are now being patted on the head by their owner. Maybe ONE squirt from the spray bottle.


     


    No one can possibly defend them.

  • Reply 5 of 13
    greginpraguegreginprague Posts: 484member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


     


    They ate the hand and are now being patted on the head by their owner. Maybe ONE squirt from the spray bottle.


     


    No one can possibly defend them.



     


    Who is the owner in this analogy?

  • Reply 6 of 13
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by GregInPrague View Post

    Who is the owner in this analogy?


     


    Courts.

  • Reply 7 of 13
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    I would guess that Apple's purchasing power allowed them to drop the capital outlay down for these plants without even thinking about it. With Apple "diversifying" they most likely have to justify the expense and building that plant becomes a serious ROI question.
  • Reply 8 of 13
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member


    I wonder how many more times Samsung will have to spit in the faces of those who blindly support them before they come to their senses and smell the roses.


     


    Samsung doesn't care about anything except ruthlessly furthering the interests of the mainly family based empire who owns them.

  • Reply 9 of 13
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by hill60 View Post

    I wonder how many more times Samsung will have to spit in the faces of those who blindly support them before they come to their senses and smell the roses.


     


    As long as there are people who hate Apple, Samsung has supporters. At least, since supporting Microsoft against Apple stopped being possible.

  • Reply 10 of 13
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member
    Wow- 9 real posts already? Comon guys- digitimes... Move along... Nothing to see here.
  • Reply 11 of 13
    jr_bjr_b Posts: 64member
    Ain't that a bitch.
  • Reply 12 of 13
    macrulezmacrulez Posts: 2,455member


    deleted

  • Reply 13 of 13
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MacRulez View Post


    What will this mean for the $4 billion dollar expansion of their TX plant?  If Apple continues to move this sort of work to other vendors who manufacture only in China, will it cost Texas those jobs?



     


    Meanwhile Samsung manufacture their handsets in Vietnam.

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