Samsung’s Galaxy S series smartphones have, for a while now, featured a tuned version of Qualcomm’s most advanced chipset branded ‘For Galaxy’. Because they’re made for the South Korean behemoth, obviously. But new industry rumours suggest that Samsung will take a little more control over the process by making the chipsets itself.
Samsung gets Gen 5
These won’t be Exynos chips, which tend to grace the company’s lower orders (and some flagships), though it’s thought that the Exynos 2600 could be used for at least some models of the Galaxy S26. A report out of Korea suggests that the smartphone maker will stick Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chips into its folding phones in 2026. The difference is that it’ll fabricate them at its own factories and using its own process.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip, which will occupy space in almost every high-end smartphone in 2026, was announced by Qualcomm last month. It’ll be made on a 3nm process by TSMC, the Taiwanese company that builds most of the world’s chips, but Samsung could have something a little more unique. The ‘For Galaxy’ version of the chipset might be made using Samsung’s own 2nm GAA (Gate-All-Around) fabrication process and at its own facilities.
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This is based on rumours in Korea that the smartphone maker has provided the first samples of its 2nm ‘For Galaxy’ Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 to Qualcomm, presumably for inspection and the go-ahead to continue the approval process that leads to complete production status. If successful, it would mark a resumed partnership between Samsung and Qualcomm. The previous one fell apart in 2021 thanks to production issues with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
Qualcomm’s chipsets may appear in the Galaxy S26 lineup, particularly in the Ultra variant, but rumour suggests that Samsung will use its own Exynos hardware at the beginning of 2026. This sort of thing has been rumoured before, however, so we’re expecting the South Korean tech maker to do what it’s done the last two years in a row and go with the speediest hardware it can find. Whether it is manufactured in-house or procured from TSMC’s fabs remains to be seen.
