Due to the surge in orders for Samsung's 2 nanometer process, manpower is tight, and Google plans to outsource the TPU I/O chip back-end design

Comparatively, Samsung Electronics is considering outsourcing the I/O chip back-end design work for Google's 10th generation TPU (codename Icefish). Google's 2 nanometer-based TPU consists of a Compute processor and an I/O chip — the former is expected to be manufactured by TSMC using the 1.4 nm process, while the latter is produced by Samsung on the 2 nm process and is responsible for data transmission between the Compute processor and HBM. Google is co-designing the chip with MediaTek and will be mass-produced as soon as 2028. However, Samsung's recent rapid influx of 2nm orders — in addition to Google and Tesla, it has taken over two customers, Anthropic and DeepX — has strained internal manpower. Previously, the back-end design of Tesla's 2nm autonomous driving chip was still done by Samsung itself.

Potential outsourcing partners currently mentioned include ADTechnology, Gaonchips, and Alphachips. The first two companies have each invested in large-scale projects — ADTechnology is focusing on the 2-nm CPU project ADP620, which aims to exceed 1 trillion won in annual revenue between 2028 and 2029; Gaonchips is preparing to participate in the K-On-Device AI project of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy of about 800 billion won to develop 5-nm ADAS chips in cooperation with Hyundai Motor Company and others. Since back-end design is essentially a service contract with low added value (usually at the level of tens of billions of won), far less than ASIC projects that cover everything from design to production (up to hundreds of billions to trillion won), the two companies are not positive, and only tend to undertake limited work to establish advanced process project performance. Alphachips, on the other hand, sees the Google TPU project as a growth driver and is more willing to participate. Industry sources pointed out that TSMC's orders in the 2 nm market, which cannot be digested due to capacity bottlenecks, are spilling over to Samsung, which is also the root cause of the latter's tight manpower.