Samsung’s Exynos comeback is starting to look real.
With the Exynos 2600 now announced and built on Samsung’s advanced 2nm GAA process, the company is signaling to the chip industry that it wants to compete again at the very top of semiconductor manufacturing. This isn’t just a “nice to have” project, either—it points to a bigger plan: cut down Samsung’s dependence on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors in future Galaxy phones and bring more of its flagship performance back in-house.
A key reason this matters is cost. Qualcomm’s premium pricing has been creeping upward, and estimates suggest the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 could land around $280 per chip. If that trend continues, next year’s successor could potentially push past the $300 mark. For a company shipping millions of smartphones, that kind of per-unit pricing becomes a massive expense. Samsung has every reason to want an alternative it controls end-to-end—especially in its most important product lines.
Right now, though, Samsung still has hurdles to clear before Exynos can take over a larger share of flagship devices. The biggest one is production yield. Earlier expectations around Exynos 2600 mass production suggested yields around 50 percent. While optimizations can improve that number over time, Samsung’s current agreement with Qualcomm still means most Galaxy S26 units are expected to ship with Snapdragon. The split being discussed is roughly 75 percent Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and 25 percent Exynos 2600—a limited role for Exynos, at least for the upcoming generation.
But that 25 percent may be the beginning, not the final destination.
Industry watchers point out that Samsung’s growing investment in custom silicon doesn’t make sense if Exynos is meant to remain a minority option forever. Beyond just designing a system-on-chip, Samsung is reportedly developing deeper in-house components—including custom CPU and GPU designs. That kind of spending and long-term engineering effort is typically aimed at achieving leadership and scale, not maintaining a small footprint in one region or a small percentage of devices.
In fact, attention is already shifting to what comes next. Reports indicate Samsung is working toward an Exynos 2800 that may be the first to truly showcase these newer in-house design ambitions, potentially allowing Samsung to increase Exynos presence in the Galaxy S27 family.
On the graphics side, Exynos is already evolving quickly. The Exynos 2600’s Xclipse 960 GPU is described as the first to use AMD’s customized RDNA 4-based architecture (referred to as MGFX4). That’s a notable step because GPU performance, efficiency, and sustained gaming stability have become major buying factors for flagship phone shoppers—especially as mobile games, ray tracing features, and on-device AI workloads get more demanding.
Samsung also appears determined to strengthen its foundry advantage alongside Exynos improvements. The company is said to have completed the basic design of its second-generation 2nm GAA process and is aiming to roll out a third iteration, called SF2P+, within about two years. If Samsung can keep pushing its manufacturing tech forward while improving yields, it not only helps Exynos compete—it also strengthens Samsung’s broader position in advanced chipmaking.
The big picture is simple: Samsung wants more control over its future flagship chips, more leverage against rising Snapdragon costs, and a clearer path to competing with the best silicon from Apple and Qualcomm. Exynos 2600 may only take a smaller slice of Galaxy S26 shipments, but the momentum around in-house CPU and GPU development suggests Samsung is planning for a much larger role in the generations that follow.
