TSMC holds ~two-thirds of the market and the yield lead; Intel is betting its comeback on 18A; Samsung trails on yield. Our read on a race where one player's dominance keeps compounding. (Our opinion, not investment advice.)
A single advanced fab costs $20–30B and depends on EUV machines only ASML makes. That brutal economics narrows the frontier to a handful of firms — and makes leading-edge capacity one of the world's true chokepoints.
No part of a "2nm" chip is 2 nanometers. Node names are marketing labels, not physical measurements — so we read them alongside transistor density and who is actually shipping in volume.
TSMC / Samsung / Intel — All three leaders entered 2nm-class volume in 2025 (TSMC N2 in Q4); demand outstrips supply, with long foundry waitlists.
Intel (18A) — Intel's 18A brought PowerVia backside power to a volume node — a structural change rivals are still adopting.
SK hynix — High-bandwidth memory became the other scarce frontier part, with SK hynix leading supply for AI GPUs.
Samsung — Samsung's 3nm was the first to ship GAA transistors, the architecture now succeeding FinFET at the frontier.
ASML / TSMC — TSMC's 7nm+ became the first high-volume node using ASML's extreme-ultraviolet machines — the tool that unlocked everything below 7nm.
No coverage matches this filter yet.
TSMC 
Intel 
Samsung Foundry 
ASML 
SMIC 
SK hynix