Ambarella recently announced that its 2nm edge AI chips will be taped out in the fourth quarter of 2025, marking another important breakthrough in the company's semiconductor technology innovation. As a leading edge AI semiconductor company, Ambarella's new project has attracted wide attention from the industry. However, there are also risks that cannot be ignored behind this technology with huge market potential – especially Samsung Electronics' choice as an OEM partner, which could be the biggest variable in Ambarella's success. Samsung's yield issues in its latest process technology have not yet been fully resolved, which has created uncertainty for Ambarella's 2nm chip project.
China Exportsemi will conduct an in-depth analysis of the technological breakthroughs, market prospects and potential risks brought by the cooperation with Samsung Electronics of Ambarella 2nm edge AI chips, and discuss the far-reaching impact that this project may have on the semiconductor industry landscape.
1. Technological breakthroughs: how 2nm chips are defining the future
Ambarella's 2nm chip project is undoubtedly an important milestone in the semiconductor industry's move towards more advanced manufacturing processes. According to Fermi Wang, president and CEO of the company, Ambarella's 2nm chips are mainly aimed at the Internet of Things (IoT) field, aiming to provide more powerful computing power and lower power consumption through more efficient architecture design and process optimization. This shows that as the demand for AI edge computing surges, the industry is driving innovation with a higher technical threshold.
The significance of the 2nm node
Compared with the current mainstream 5nm and 3nm processes, the 2nm process offers smaller transistor size, higher integration, and better energy efficiency. This allows the chip to fit more logic units in a limited physical space, thereby increasing computing performance and reducing power consumption.
Ambarella expects that the launch of 2nm chips will further promote the popularization of AI applications at the edge, including intelligent surveillance, autonomous driving, medical devices, and industrial automation. In these areas, data needs to be processed locally to reduce latency, and high-performance, low-power chips are key to enabling these applications.
2. Partner: Samsung Electronics' role and challenges
In the field of semiconductor foundry, Samsung Electronics, as the world's leading foundry, has upgraded its cooperation with Ambarella again. Samsung used to be the foundry of Ambarella's 5nm chips, and the two sides have accumulated deep cooperation experience. The choice of Samsung as a partner for the 2nm process is obviously based on Samsung's recent technology accumulation in advanced processes and its desire for market leadership.
Samsung's 2nm challenges and opportunities
While Samsung has suffered some customer churn at the 3nm node, 2nm technology is key in its efforts to redefine its market position. According to reports, Samsung plans to mass produce 2nm chips in early 2026, and Ambarella's project coincides with this time node. This provides a great opportunity for Samsung to showcase its technical capabilities, and it also means that the 2nm node is expected to be the core of its market counterattack.
Compared with TSMC, Samsung's stability and yield rate in advanced manufacturing processes still need to be improved. But if the 2nm node is successfully mass-produced, Samsung will not only be able to attract more innovative customers like Ambarella, but also strengthen its position in the global chip foundry market.
Figure: Ambarella 2nm edge AI chip: Tape-out in Q4 2025, Samsung Electronics foundry may become the biggest risk
3. Finance & Markets: Ambarella's growth drivers
Ambarella achieved revenue of $82.7 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, up 63% year-over-year and 30% sequentially. Despite a GAAP net loss of $24.1 million, its gross margin of 60.6% and significant revenue growth reflected the high level of market acceptance of its products.
The success of Ambarella's 2nm chip program largely depends on its ability to further enhance market confidence through new products. The AI chip market is in a stage of rapid development, and the demand for low-latency and high-performance chips in various industries continues to grow. If Ambarella can achieve breakthroughs in both technology and commercialization, its financial performance will further improve and may lead to larger-scale industry investment.
4. Global Competitive Landscape: The Industry Significance of 2nm Chips
1. Market demand for AI chips
With the widespread application of AI technology, the global demand for AI chips has expanded from data centers to edge computing. Ambarella's 2nm chips focus on edge AI, which is fully consistent with the current demand trend for high-performance, low-power chips in the industry.
According to the forecast of market research institutions, by 2030, the market size of edge AI chips will reach about 120 billion US dollars, with an average annual compound growth rate of more than 15%. In this fast-growing market, whether or not you can occupy the technological high ground will determine the survival and development of enterprises.
2. The dynamics of global competitors
1. TSMC in Taiwan: As the world's largest foundry, TSMC is already ahead of its peers in 2nm technology and plans to mass produce in 2025. This means that the cooperation between Ambarella and Samsung will also face strong challenges from TSMC.
2. South Korea's SK hynix: SK hynix, which focuses on memory chips, has also ventured into the field of AI acceleration chips in recent years, indicating that more and more companies in the industry have begun to set their sights on the high-profit field of AI chips.
3. ASML in Europe: As a lithography machine giant, ASML's extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment is the foundation of 2nm technology. ASML's production capacity and supply capacity will greatly affect the speed of global 2nm chip advancement.
Ambarella's 2nm project not only creates a competitive advantage in the market, but also injects new variables into the global AI chip competition landscape.
4. The Future of Edge AI: Breakthroughs and Potential
The launch of Ambarella's 2nm chips could be a catalyst for the development of AI at the edge. The technical competition of AI chips is not only limited to hardware performance, but also involves the improvement of the ecosystem and the satisfaction of market demand.
1. The power of ecosystems
Ambarella has gradually built a complete AI ecosystem, and the co-optimization of its chips and software provides customers with highly flexible solutions. This strategy has allowed it to maintain a unique advantage in the fierce market competition.
2. Collaboration and challenges in the industry
The future development of the edge AI chip industry requires more collaboration between enterprises. Ambarella's partnership with Samsung sets an example for the industry to show that cross-enterprise collaboration can create more value while making technological breakthroughs. However, the market is still highly concerned about the yield rate, cost control and mass production capacity of the 2nm node.
3. Summary: 2nm shaping the future
Ambarella's 2nm chip project is not only a technological breakthrough, but also an industry paradigm shift driven by the needs of the AI era. As the 2025 tape-out date approaches, the success of the project will affect Ambarella's future position in the edge AI market, as well as Samsung's competitiveness in the foundry market.
The significance of this project goes far beyond a single enterprise, and its enlightenment to the global AI chip market lies in the fact that the combination of technological progress and market demand is the core driving force for the development of the industry. The R&D and application of 2nm chips will undoubtedly further accelerate the implementation of AI technology and lead the industry to new heights.
In the future, the cooperation between Ambarella and Samsung may provide a new technical route for the entire industry, and at the same time, it will also prompt more companies to join the competition and promote the development of AI technology and chip industry to a higher level.
