TSMC reportedly accelerating 1.4nm manufacturing process while Intel and Samsung rethink their roadmap

The semiconductor manufacturing race is advancing at a rapid pace and TSMC, being the biggest player, wants to extend its lead further. Despite that lack of widespread adoption of 2nm chips, it has been reported that TSMC is already fast tracking its 1.4nm manufacturing process. New factories focused on production of this new node could be set up as early as next year with mass production starting the following year.

As reported by UDN (machine translated), TSMC has made a breakthrough in the 1.4nm process allowing it to accelerate the production, which starts with setting up new factories. It plans on building four factories with the first one going online by the end of 2027 after completing its risk trial production. This means mass production would start by the second half of 2028. TSMC has reportedly informed suppliers to prepare the necessary equipment needed for setting up the 1.4nm process.

Of the four planned factories, two will start mass production of the new node in 2028 as part of the first phase. For the second phase, the remaining two factories could be used for the even more advanced 1nm manufacturing process.

This breakthrough for TSMC comes at a time when competitors like Intel and Samsung have been rethinking their manufacturing process roadmap. Intel may be looking into halting development of A14, its 1.4nm process, while Samsung has pushed its 1.4nm goals to 2029 to focus on better yields with 2nm.

That being said, the current PC market is still only using, the 3nm manufacturing process, scarcely, with 2nm nowhere to be seen. Intel’s Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake CPUs are based on TSMC’s 3nm process while Apple’s latest M4 platform is based on TSMC’s N3E process, the second generation of 3nm. Typically, the new nodes make their way to mobile chips before mainstream desktop computing and the Exynos 2600 that will power the upcoming Galaxy S26 series will be the first mobile CPU based this process. Similarly, while Apple’s soon to launch iPhone 17 series is said to stick with the 3nm process, the iPhone 18 series with the A20 SoC will most likely be based on 2nm.