Samsung may be gearing up for a major comeback in custom smartphone silicon, with new reports claiming the company is preparing to build its own CPU and GPU architectures for a future flagship chip called the Exynos 2800. If this turns out to be accurate, it would mark a big shift in Samsung’s strategy: instead of leaning on standard ARM CPU designs and third-party graphics tech, Samsung could regain full control over the core building blocks that power Galaxy phones.
The details come from a tip shared on Weibo by Smart Chip Guide, which suggests the Exynos 2800 would be the first chipset to feature a fully in-house Samsung design. For consumers, that kind of vertical integration is a big deal. When one company designs the silicon, tunes the software, and controls the ecosystem, it opens the door to tighter optimization, longer-term feature planning, and potentially improved performance per watt. It’s the same general playbook that has helped Apple stand out with its own chips.
This wouldn’t be Samsung’s first attempt at crafting custom CPU cores, though. Between 2016 and 2020, Samsung worked on its own CPU project known as Mongoose, developed by a team in Austin. While ambitious, those chips earned a mixed reputation, with complaints centered on overheating and higher battery drain. In many cases, they couldn’t match the efficiency of standard ARM cores or competing custom approaches in the market at the time. Eventually, Samsung shut down that effort around 2020 and returned to using off-the-shelf ARM CPU cores.
Now, Samsung reportedly believes the timing is better for another try. The company is said to be betting that its broader experience, along with modern manufacturing advances, will help it avoid the problems that plagued the earlier custom CPU era. One manufacturing technology being mentioned is 2nm GAA (Gate-All-Around), a next-generation process that could improve power efficiency and thermals—two areas that matter most in thin, high-performance smartphones.
Just as significant is the GPU side of the story. Reports indicate Samsung plans to end its graphics partnership with AMD for its highest-end Exynos chips. In recent years, premium Exynos processors have used AMD’s RDNA-based Xclipse GPU, bringing features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing to select Galaxy devices starting in 2022. While that collaboration helped Samsung push mobile gaming features, it also meant relying on external GPU architecture and licensing.
With the Exynos 2800, Samsung is expected to introduce a completely new GPU designed in-house. That could be a meaningful upgrade for the long-term evolution of Galaxy performance, because a custom GPU gives Samsung more freedom to optimize across areas that matter in modern phones: AI workloads, imaging pipelines, gaming performance, thermal behavior, and deeper integration with Samsung’s software ecosystem. It also potentially reduces constraints that can come with licensing and external roadmaps.
As for when you might actually see this silicon in a phone, expectations point to a later launch window. The Exynos 2800 is rumored to arrive in the Galaxy S28 series around 2028, assuming Samsung sticks to its typical naming cadence and release cycle.
Before that, another chip is expected to bridge the gap. The upcoming Exynos 2600, which is rumored for the Galaxy S26 lineup, is said to be the first Exynos to feature graphics based on AMD’s RDNA4 technology. Interestingly, while the architecture itself would still be RDNA4, reports claim the GPU development work was completed internally by Samsung—possibly signaling a transition period as Samsung ramps up toward a fully independent GPU design.
If these plans hold, Samsung’s return to custom CPU and GPU development could reshape the future of Exynos and determine how competitive Samsung’s flagship Galaxy phones are in performance, battery life, and on-device AI over the next several years.
