Samsung is already deep into developing its second- and third-generation 2nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) manufacturing processes, but a new report suggests the company’s ambitions go even further. The chipmaking giant is said to be working toward its most advanced lithography target yet: a 1nm manufacturing process that has been described as a “dream semiconductor” node.
This next leap won’t happen overnight. Based on the reported internal timeline, Samsung’s research and development schedule is expected to run through 2030, with the 1nm manufacturing process potentially arriving around 2031. If that timeline holds, the early 2030s could mark Samsung’s push into a new era of chip miniaturization where squeezing more performance and efficiency out of smaller spaces becomes even more challenging than it is today.
Moving from 2nm to 1nm is widely viewed as an extremely difficult transition, and simply reusing today’s playbook may not be enough. That’s why Samsung is reportedly exploring a technique called “fork sheet,” designed to increase transistor density by packing more transistors into the same chip area. The basic idea is to insert a non-conductive “wall” between GAA devices, allowing tighter placement and reducing wasted space between structures.
To understand why this matters, it helps to look at what GAA already does. Gate-All-Around transistor architecture improves power efficiency by expanding the channel path, moving beyond older designs and enabling better control of current flow. Samsung’s current and upcoming 2nm nodes rely on GAA, but as chips shrink further, GAA alone may not deliver the transistor density boosts needed for a true 1nm-class process. Fork sheet is positioned as an additional strategy to push density higher by redesigning how those structures sit next to each other.
One way to visualize the concept is through a housing analogy. Traditional layouts can resemble buildings separated by yards. Fork sheet, in this comparison, removes those “lawns” and adds more “buildings” into the same plot—meaning more transistors squeezed into the same silicon real estate. The result could be higher performance potential and better scaling, assuming manufacturing complexity and yields can be controlled.
This reported 1nm push also arrives alongside earlier rumors surrounding Samsung’s roadmap. The company was previously rumored to have canceled a 1.4nm process for undisclosed reasons, though later talk suggested it may have been delayed to 2028. One possible explanation is that Samsung chose to focus more heavily on advancing its 2nm GAA technology first, especially as competition and customer expectations rise.
There’s also the practical reality that leading-edge nodes are judged not just by ambition, but by results—particularly power efficiency and real-world performance. Recent chatter around Samsung’s Exynos 2600 highlights why efficiency remains a major focus. The chip has been associated with power spike behavior, reportedly drawing as much as 30W in certain benchmark workloads such as Geekbench 6. That kind of power consumption can translate into heat, throttling, and faster battery drain in everyday devices.
Battery life comparisons reinforce why these details matter. In the same discussion, a Snapdragon-powered version of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S26 line is said to last significantly longer than an Exynos 2600-based model, with a cited difference of 28 percent. Even if those results vary depending on device configuration and testing conditions, the overall message is clear: efficiency and power management remain crucial, and advanced nodes must deliver tangible improvements—not just smaller numbers.
For Samsung, that means the progress of its next steps in 2nm is just as important as its long-term 1nm dream. The company reportedly still needs to strengthen its process maturity, starting with its second-generation 2nm GAA technology, often referenced as SF2P. If Samsung can improve yields and efficiency at 2nm, it will be better positioned to take on the far more demanding challenge of scaling down toward 1nm with fork sheet designs.
The road to 1nm may be long, but if Samsung can solve key manufacturing hurdles and deliver better real-world efficiency, its 2031 goal could become one of the most important milestones in next-generation semiconductor production.
