Apple is reportedly going to lead the market in terms of 5nm chips in this year, while its competitor Samsung will only reach the third position. The former will account for nearly half of all 5nm chips in the market in 2021.
According to a Counterpoint Research report (Via 9to5Mac), Apple will be the leader in terms of 5nm chip in the current year. Furthermore, it is also one of the major reasons why Qualcomm will arrive second in the market for the same. Although, the chipmaker would only account for a quarter of the total 5nm chip shipments. The report also adds that 2020 was a good year for chipmakers, with 2021 likely being the same as well. Meanwhile, the South Korean tech giant is said to be 6 to 9 months behind TSMC, Apple’s primary chip supplier.
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As per the report, 7nm and 5nm chips saw a surge in demand, especially with the growth of the 5G enabled smartphone market, new gaming console launch, and AI/GPU in cloud servers. The year also marked a growth of 23 percent year on year for the foundry industry, which reached about 82 billion US Dollars. Similarly, even 2021 is expected to witness growth as well, although, it would not be as large in comparison to 2020, growing by 12 percent year on year to reach 92 billion US Dollars in total.
The report also estimates that Apple will be the largest customer for the 5nm processes. These processes would be used for the Cupertino based giant’s upcoming 5nm+ process based chips for 2021, as its current gen A14 chips are already built on the existing 5nm process. One of the reasons why Qualcomm is expected to arrive second, beating Samsung, is due to the fact that it would be supplying Apple with modem chips. However, this might not benefit the chipmaker for too long as the company is expected to soon launch its own modems as well.
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