Samsung and MediaTek have spent years leaning on ARM’s ready-made CPU cores, while Apple and Qualcomm pushed ahead with deeper, more customized silicon strategies. Now, Samsung appears ready to change the script in a big way. A new report says the company has created a dedicated “Custom SoC Development Team,” signaling a serious push toward building a truly in-house mobile chipset platform designed from the ground up.
If this plan stays on track, the upcoming Exynos 2600 could mark the end of an era. While earlier benchmark information points to the Exynos 2600 continuing to use ARM Cortex CPU designs, Samsung’s longer-term direction reportedly aims to move beyond standard ARM cores and develop its own CPU architecture and key building blocks internally.
This shift is about more than just a faster processor. The report suggests Samsung wants full control across the core elements that define a modern system-on-chip, including SoC architecture, intellectual property, AI capabilities, and neural processing hardware. In other words, Samsung is aiming for the kind of vertical integration that has helped rivals optimize performance, efficiency, and features at a deeper level than relying on off-the-shelf components.
The newly formed team is reportedly led by Vice President Park Bong-il, described as an experienced SoC design specialist with a background in custom semiconductor development within Samsung’s Device Solutions division. Leadership matters here, because moving from adapting existing CPU designs to creating custom silicon is a complex, multi-year transformation that demands both technical depth and tight coordination across product groups.
Samsung also has an advantage that many competitors don’t: a large internal ecosystem for chip development and manufacturing. The company already produces custom camera sensors and operates a massive foundry business. That foundry is reportedly working with a cutting-edge 2nm GAA (Gate-All-Around) process and fulfilling orders for external clients, which could help Samsung scale advanced manufacturing as its own in-house chip ambitions grow.
If Samsung can align its design and manufacturing strengths, it may also gain a cost edge. Companies that rely on external foundries often face high upfront expenses during the tape-out and production ramp process. Samsung’s ability to keep more of the supply chain under one roof could reduce costs and speed up iterations, assuming yields and performance targets are met.
Another potential upside: Exynos chips don’t necessarily have to stay exclusive to Samsung phones. Like Snapdragon platforms, Exynos could be positioned as a product Samsung sells to other device makers or partners. But that possibility comes with a major requirement: Samsung must prove two things at once. First, its foundry needs to compete more consistently with the industry’s best in terms of efficiency, performance, and manufacturing reliability. Second, Samsung’s custom SoC designs must show they can match the rapid yearly progress delivered by the top-tier mobile chips.
For consumers, this could eventually translate into better battery life, improved AI features on-device, stronger sustained performance, and tighter optimization between Samsung hardware and software. For the industry, it’s a sign that the next wave of smartphone competition may be driven less by who licenses the best CPU cores and more by who can build the smartest, most efficient silicon from scratch.
The report points to a pivotal moment: Samsung isn’t just refining Exynos. It’s aiming to reinvent it.
