Google Pixel 10 series to feature Tensor G5 chips made by TSMC instead of Samsung

Google is reportedly making a major strategic shift in its chipset development process, moving away from Samsung’s foundry in favour of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for its upcoming Tensor processors. This change is expected to begin with the Pixel 10 series, due later in 2025, and could extend through to the Pixel 14 lineup in 2029.

According to a report by DigiTimes, Google has entered into a long-term partnership with TSMC, signalling a significant investment in boosting performance and reliability across future Pixel devices. Google executives have reportedly visited TSMC in Taiwan to discuss multi-year collaboration plans, which also include potential cooperation on cloud-based TPU chips, IC design, servers, and liquid cooling technologies.

The upcoming Tensor G5 chip, likely to debut in the Pixel 10 range, is said to be codenamed “Laguna” and will be built using TSMC’s advanced 3nm N3E process. This marks a notable upgrade from the 4nm process used for the previous Tensor G4, manufactured by Samsung. The shift is expected to address several longstanding performance concerns, including thermal issues, power inefficiency, and inconsistent yields.

The Tensor G5 is rumoured to feature a new CPU configuration with one Cortex-X4 core, five Cortex-A725 cores, and two Cortex-A520 cores, along with Google’s own custom TPU for AI and on-device processing tasks. The chip may also include an always-on compute (AoC) audio processor, the Google Emerald Hill memory co-processor, Google GXP (DSP), and the Google EdgeTPU. It is expected to incorporate a GPU from Imagination Technologies' DXT lineup.

The Pixel 10 series is believed to consist of four models: Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. By moving to TSMC, Google is likely aiming to deliver more consistent flagship performance and maintain stable production timelines, especially as Samsung Foundry continues to face yield issues with its Exynos 2500 chips.

With this transition, Google appears to be positioning itself more competitively against other premium smartphone makers, while laying the groundwork for more ambitious hardware advancements in the years ahead.