Qualcomm and Samsung might be teaming up again for chip manufacturing. According to a report from Korea Economic Daily, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon discussed potential Qualcomm Samsung 2nm chip production during CES 2026 meetings.
The talks reportedly center on manufacturing future Snapdragon processors. However, Qualcomm hasn’t officially confirmed anything yet, so take this with the usual grain of salt until we hear something concrete.
The timing makes sense when you look at what’s happening in the chip manufacturing world. TSMC is completely booked up with orders from Apple, NVIDIA, and more. Not to mention, TSMC’s 2nm production costs keep climbing. For Qualcomm, relying entirely on one supplier creates risks. Bringing Samsung back into the mix for Qualcomm Samsung 2nm manufacturing would give them a backup plan and potentially better pricing leverage.
This would mark a major comeback for Samsung’s foundry business. The company has been aggressively trying to catch up with TSMC. Landing a big client like Qualcomm would validate their 2nm process capabilities. Let’s not forget that using Samsung’s Texas plant also helps Qualcomm dodge potential tariff issues and supply chain delays that come with relying solely on Taiwan-based production.
What This Means for Galaxy Phones and Android Flagships
If the Qualcomm Samsung 2nm partnership happens, we could see custom Snapdragon chips powering devices like the Galaxy S26 series. This would be a win for users who’ve dealt with the infamous Exynos versus Snapdragon performance gaps in the past. Samsung has been working on custom chips to beat those Exynos blues, but having access to cutting-edge Qualcomm silicon manufactured in-house could give them the best of both worlds.
The dual-sourcing strategy also means no more regional chip lottery where some markets get Snapdragon while others are stuck with underperforming Exynos variants. For context, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 already showed serious performance gains, and moving to 2nm manufacturing would push things even further.
Of course, this is all still in the “talks” stage. Samsung’s 2nm process needs to prove it can handle high-volume production without the yield issues that scared Qualcomm away before.
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Source: Qualcomm Reportedly in Talks with Samsung for 2nm Snapdragon Chips
