Samsung could handle the production of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chips
A win for the South Korean company.
By Shawn Tan -
Samsung may be close to a major win for its foundry business, with a report suggesting a potential deal to manufacture Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy.
According to several industry sources cited by South Korean outlet BizNewDaily, Samsung Foundry recently supplied Qualcomm with sample chips of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 based on a 2nm process.
While Qualcomm has officially stated that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is built on a 3nm process, the existence of 2nm samples suggests that Samsung is being considered as a manufacturing partner for the upcoming Galaxy S26 series. TSMC is currently the chip manufacturer for Qualcomm.
For those unfamiliar, Samsung has been using customised “for Galaxy” versions of Qualcomm’s flagship mobile platforms in recent years. These variants typically feature higher-clocked CPU cores, which are perfect for demanding tasks such as video editing and graphics-intensive games. However, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy may take a different approach – focusing on improved efficiency through the newer 2nm process.
The Galaxy S26 lineup is rumoured to include three models: Pro, Ultra, and Edge. Reports indicate that the Ultra and Edge models could run on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, while the Pro variant may use Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2600 chip.
Samsung is expected to unveil the Galaxy S26 series sometime in February 2026.
Source: BizNewDaily via GSMArena