Google is reportedly set to sign a deal that could see future Pixel smartphones receive a considerable performance boost.
According to Taiwanese website DigiTimes, Google recently visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to discuss using it to make the company’s custom Tensor chips.
Up to and including the Google Pixel 9 series, this task has been the sole preserve of Samsung. However, TSMC is known to produce more efficient and thus more performant System on Chips (SoCs).
Pixel 10 chip rumours
With rumours that the Google Pixel 10 will run on a TSMC-produced Tensor G5 chip, we could be looking at a considerable bump in performance with Google’s forthcoming flagship generation.
Earlier in May we heard the rumour that Google was ready to adopt a fully in-house design built on TSMC’s 3nm process, and with a new Imagination Technologies DXT GPU in place of the existing Arm Mali.
According to this latest report, Google’s new deal with TSMC could be set to run for between three and five years, potentially taking us right through to the Pixel 14.
Samsung’s troubled chip business
Samsung’s chip operation has been famously troubled, particularly in recent times. Earlier in the month it was reported that the company’s inability to produce its own Exynos 2500 chip at sufficient scale for the Samsung Galaxy S25 launch resulted in a $400 million loss for the company.
Even when Samsung has been able to turn out its own Exynos chips in sufficient numbers, it has resulted in an unsatisfactory split chip offering, with Galaxy phones in the US and China running on off-the-shelf Qualcomm chips.
To make matters worse, those Qualcomm-powered Samsung devices are invariably faster and more efficient than their Exynos-powered global equivalents.
