Qualcomm will reportedly resume a partial manufacturing partnership with Samsung Foundry for a future chipset. This development follows Qualcomm’s earlier shift to TSMC, a decision prompted by production yield issues with a previous Samsung-fabricated chip, according to a Korean news report.
The company had moved its chip production to TSMC, beginning with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, after experiencing low yields from Samsung Foundry on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. While the recently announced Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is built on TSMC’s 3 nm node, reports indicate Samsung will be tasked with manufacturing the specialized “for Galaxy” iteration. Samsung has implemented these custom chips in its flagship phones for the past couple of generations.
This forthcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 for Galaxy system-on-a-chip is not expected to be just an overclocked variant of the standard version. The report suggests it will likely be built using Samsung’s 2 nm gate-all-around (GAA) process, distinguishing its underlying fabrication technology from the TSMC-produced base model.
Qualcomm officially announced that Samsung will supply the new chip for its upcoming flagship phones, which led to speculation that the Galaxy S26 series would run on the Qualcomm platform. However, the report suggests the next “for Galaxy” chipset will instead be used in Samsung’s 2026 foldable devices launching next summer. This strategy would leave the Exynos 2600 processor designated for the Galaxy S series.
