Samsung Is Likely Eyeing A Dominant Position For Its Exynos Over Snapdragon, Analyst Says That Money Won’t Be Poured For In-House CPU & GPU Designs For A Minority Role

The recent announcement of the Exynos 2600, built on Samsung’s 2nm GAA process, has sent a signal to the industry that the company is staging a comeback when it comes to cutting-edge manufacturing processes and reducing its reliance on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoCs for future devices. According to an earlier report, the company is developing an in-house GPU for the Exynos 2800, with one analyst now commenting that Samsung wouldn’t be pouring a ton of money into custom designs if it didn’t want its products to hold a more dominant role.

Once Qualcomm’s agreement with Samsung ends, the latter will likely proceed to boost Exynos production to be found in the majority of its smartphones

To ensure that the Exynos range of chipsets is found in a higher number of Galaxy-branded smartphones, the first hurdle for Samsung to clear is improving its yields. Previously, when the Exynos 2600 was said to have entered mass production, the yields were at an estimated 50 percent. Through additional optimizations, Samsung can improve that figure, but it still doesn’t change the fact that thanks to its agreement with Qualcomm, 75 percent of all Galaxy S26 shipments will comprise of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, with the remaining batch housing the Exynos 2600.

Fortunately, Samsung is probably growing tired of paying Qualcomm a significant premium for using its technology, with that number expected to grow higher as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is estimated to cost a pricey $280 per unit, which only means that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 could cross the $300 barrier next year. As mentioned above, Samsung’s long-term goal is to reduce its dependency on Qualcomm, and analyst Samir Khazaka strongly believes that the development of its in-house CPU and GPU designs will enable the Exynos range to occupy a significant role.

Interestingly enough, the analyst mentions Samsung’s custom CPU design, but that is likely because the company has been reported to have formed a division laser-focused on developing in-house solutions to take on Apple and Qualcomm. The Exynos 2800 will likely be the first chipset that ships with the aforementioned attributes, and it could drive a higher percentage of shipments found in the Galaxy S27 lineup. As far as graphics processor developments go, Samsung has already progressed massively with the Exynos 2600, as its Xclipse 960 is the first to be made using AMD’s customized RDNA 4 architecture called MGFX4.

From its foundry perspective, Samsung aims to maintain an upper hand in this area too and is reported to have completed the basic design of its second-generation 2nm GAA process and plans to implement the third iteration called SF2P+ in two years.

News Source: Samir Khazaka

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