Samsung’s inability to improve its 3nm GAA yields and mass produce the Exynos 2500 in higher quantities left an open playing field for Qualcomm to capture, and given that the San Diego chipset maker struck gold by employing its custom Oryon cores in the Snapdragon 8 Elite, it was obvious that this SoC was going to be the only choice remaining for the Galaxy S25 launch. One analyst now estimates that there is a massive ‘incremental revenue opportunity’ for Qualcomm, where it can generate around $2 billion in revenue as a result of partnering with Samsung alone.
Last year, Qualcomm had a 70 percent share with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but this year, the Snapdragon 8 Elite powering the Galaxy S25 models will greatly contribute to the company’s revenue
With the base Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25+ shipping with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, JP Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee believes that Qualcomm will witness a $2 billion revenue boost from this deal. The report mentions that the company’s incremental share gain with the latest smartphones amounts to an incremental 12 million units. Seeing as how Samsung’s Galaxy S24 family was estimated to have shipped 40 million units in 2024, Qualcomm is not only expected to witness a 100 percent share with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, but a higher shipment volume should benefit the company financially.
Even though Samsung’s Galaxy S25 range looks nearly identical to last year’s Galaxy S24, the Korean giant incorporated some key hardware changes, not to mention introducing more AI features that should elevate the user experience. On this occasion, Samsung has bumped up the base RAM count to 12GB instead of 8GB while employing a more advanced manufacturing process for the memory to reduce power consumption and improve efficiency, resulting in better battery life. While we cannot confirm the following, it is possible that Samsung handed Qualcomm a premium for using an overclocked version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
While we anticipate the SoC’s power consumption to rise with this version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, we have reported that the Galaxy S25 Ultra has beaten the iPhone 16 Pro Max in Geekbench 6 and 3DMark Steel Nomad Light tests thanks to this upgrade. However, Samsung continues its efforts with the Exynos 2500, with a previous rumor stating that the chipset could be used in the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 7 to reduce component costs. Of course, these plans could be scrapped in favor of Qualcomm’s less powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite, which features a 7-core CPU cluster.
The reduced number of cores means that this Snapdragon 8 Elite will be offered to Qualcomm’s partners who want to equip their devices with a flagship chipset at a lower cost, and we could see Samsung possibly utilizing this version in its foldable smartphones if it produces better results than the Exynos 2500. This move will once again contribute to Qualcomm’s annual revenue, which we will continue to provide updates about, so stay tuned.
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