The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth yarn claiming it will use the fancier N2P variant for both the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and its successor, the Gen 7.

Tipster @reikaNVMe claims that Qualcomm is locking itself into N2P across two generations to squeeze every drop of performance and efficiency out of it.

TSMC is starting mass production of N2 later this year, but the N2P variant promises either a five per cent power reduction or a five per cent performance uplift at the same clock speeds. Qualcomm apparently wants both, by cranking up frequencies while trying to keep the chips from cooking themselves.

@reikaNVMe said nothing about Qualcomm playing nice with Samsung, even though the Korean giant’s 2nm GAA process is almost ready for prime time. Samsung’s Exynos 2600, rumoured for the Galaxy S26 later this year, will be the first big test of its 2nm tech. If Qualcomm teamed up with Samsung, it could at least use the threat as leverage against TSMC’s eye-watering wafer prices.

The money side looks grim. Qualcomm and MediaTek shelled out up to 24 per cent more for 3nm N3P wafers used in the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Dimensity 9500. With TSMC expected to jack up 2nm wafer prices by 50 per cent, Qualcomm will need either a dual-sourcing strategy or very deep pockets.

Samsung has completed the basic design of its second-generation 2nm GAA process, dubbed SF2P. That might tempt Qualcomm later, though for now, the rumours suggest the company is sticking with TSMC.