AMD to tap Samsung for some chip production?

NVIDIA is using Samsung's 8nm node for the production of its Ampere GPU and now there are whispers that AMD is exploring a similar option. At the moment, AMD uses 7nm production at TSMC as well as 12nm (for I/O dies) at GlobalFoundries for its newest products. TSMC's capacity is very tight due to high demand and GlobalFoundries is no longer in the cutting-edge foundry business.

This leaves Samsung as the onlyalternative option. TechPowerUp reports it's rumored that AMD may use Samsung for the production of lower-end parts:

That's what originated form the rumor mill. Speculating, this could mean that AMD would be looking to outsource products with generally lower ASP to Samsung's foundries, instead of trying to cram even more silicon manufacturing onto TSMC's 7 nm process (where it already fabricates its Zen 3, RDNA 2, EPYC, and custom silicon solutions for latest-gen consoles). AMD might thus be planning on leveraging Samsung's 8 nm or even smaller fabrication processes as alternatives for, for example, lower-than-high-end graphics solutions and other product lines (such as APUs and FPGA production, should its acquisition of Xilinx come through).