Samsung Galaxy S26 May Usher In Another Silicon Chip Strategy Change
An insider's report has found that for 2026, Samsung might bring its Exynos silicon back into its Galaxy S26 flagship phones. This move stems from heavy financial losses incurred from using solely Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processors for all Galaxy S25 phones sold worldwide. Samsung took an estimated $400 million hit for the Qualcomm chipset strategy and wants to recoup that by rolling out the latest (and cheaper) Exynos 2600. However, the rollout may be limited to Europe due to low production yield of its 2-nanometer gateway-all-around (GAA) process.
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— Jukanlosreve (@Jukanlosreve) May 3, 2025
Exynos 2600 is indeed planned to be used in the S26.
Currently, due to reportedly low yield, it is likely to be equipped mainly in European models.
An industry source emphasized that even in the AP for the S26, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon…
Inside scoop reporter @jukanlosreve (via X) recently posted a claim that Samsung is bringing the Exynos 2600 to next year's Galaxy S26 lineup. It will be limited to mostly European models, however. After going full in with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for every S25 model, the return to the home-brewed Exynos isn't because Samsung LSI (Large-Scale Integration) has necessarily cracked the code on making the Exynos 2600 an industry beater, but is more of a financial one.
According to the source, various factors include exclusively buying the more expensive Snapdragon 8 Elite plus nixing the cheaper (and development cost) of Exynos 2500 incurred a cool $400 million in losses. Perhaps compounded by a weak fourth quarter in 2024 by its mobile division Samsung has decided to lower chipset costs by utilizing the cheaper Exynos 2600 in select S26 flagships. Ultimately, the savings might be not be as high as Samsung hoped due to low supply of the new processor.
In Samsung's Q1 2025 earnings call, it was noted that the 2600's gate-all-around (GAA) production yield was sitting at 30%. While that's better than Samsung's previous achievement with the 3nm GAA process, it still needs to get to 70-80%, which is the industry standard to begin stable mass production.
Low yield or not, customers of the Exynos 2600-equipped S26s will no doubt be comparing their phones with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2-equipped versions. Insiders have disclosed that the new Qualcomm chipset easily outperforms the Exynos, meaning that some will definitely feel shortchanged by Samsung's (let's be real) money grab. We think it might a better strategy if Samsung kept the 8 Elite Gen 2 for all its flagships and reserve the 2600 for its mid-range devices instead.
