TSMC is pulling further ahead of Samsung in the race to make 2-nanometer chips, which is good news for TSMC and bad news for rivals trying to catch up.

• MediaTek, the world's fifth-largest chip designer, has joined Apple as a TSMC 2nm customer with its new Dimensity 9600 Pro phone chip.
• Winning a second big customer shows TSMC can now supply 2nm chips to several companies at once, not just Apple.
• Samsung is improving its own 2nm yields and chasing the same customers, but still trails TSMC on capacity and customer breadth.
• Qualcomm is the next big prize: it plans to build its newest Snapdragon chip on 2nm and 3nm later this year, and Samsung is pitching hard for that order.
• Korean industry insiders admit that even if latecomers get a seat at the table, closing the gap with TSMC on real mass production will be very hard.

Outlook: If MediaTek's new chip performs well in the market, TSMC is favored to win Qualcomm's 2nm business too, widening its lead further.