We were among the first to report on the recent commentary by Qualcomm's management, indicating their confidence in retaining a 75 percent share of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S26 series via the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, which benchmarks show is only slightly faster than the standard 8 Gen 5, leaving an implied 25 percent share for Samsung's in-house Exynos 2600.
Now, a separate report has stamped another sheen of authenticity on the Galaxy S26 series' expected 75 percent Qualcomm/25 percent Exynos share mix.
Samsung is again pivoting to a dual-chip strategy, with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 expected to power the lion's share of the Galaxy S26 series, with a limited role for the Exynos 2600 chip
South Korea's ZDNET is now reporting that Samsung is again pivoting to a dual-chip strategy, with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip expected to power the lion's share of the upcoming Galaxy S26 series:
- Qualcomm's flagship chip will power the Galaxy S26 Ultra globally.
- The chip will also power the base S26 and S26+ in many regions, including the US and the EU.
- On average, Samsung will use around three Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chips for every Exynos 2600 chip that is used in the S26 lineup, corresponding to a 75 percent share for Qualcomm and a residual 25 percent share for Exynos.
Samsung's in-house Exynos 2600 chip, which leverages the South Korean behemoth's 2nm GAA process, is expected to fulfil only a residual role:
- The chip will power the base Galaxy S26 as well as the Galaxy S26+ in select regions.
- The Exynos 2600 chip will have a primary presence in South Korea, China, and a number of developing countries.
Do note that the Exynos 2500 chip, which was based on Samsung's 3nm node, suffered from low yields and stability issues, limiting its uptake. In contrast, Samsung is quite confident of the Exynos 2600, which has already achieved stable yields, with major gains in efficiency and thermal controls, to the tune of around 30 percent, and a significantly bolstered NPU for improved AI performance.
Meanwhile, as we reported previously, Qualcomm's management had declared during its recent earnings call on November 05:
"On Galaxy S25, we got 100%. Our assumption for any new Galaxy is always going to be 75%. That is our assumption for Galaxy S26."
Finally, do note that each unit of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is expected to cost Samsung around $250. When paired with the Galaxy S26 Ultra's expected sales volume of around 16 million units, Samsung will shell out a whopping $4 billion to Qualcomm just for using its flagship chip within its S26 Ultra.
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