Qualcomm has reportedly switched back to Samsung for the production of a specific variant of its upcoming Snapdragon chip, marking a reversal of its previous decision to move away from Samsung Foundry.
The decision to move away from Samsung Foundry was initially prompted by low production yields for the Samsung-made Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Qualcomm started using TSMC for its Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip. Now, a report from a Korean news outlet suggests that Samsung will manufacture the “for Galaxy” iteration of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5. While the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, announced in late September, is built on TSMC’s 3nm node, the “for Galaxy” variant is expected to be manufactured using Samsung’s own 2nm GAA process.
The “for Galaxy” iteration is anticipated to be more than just an overclocked version of the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 model. According to the report, this specialized system-on-chip (SoC) is slated for use in Samsung’s 2026 foldable devices, not the Galaxy S26 series as some had speculated. The primary Galaxy S series lineup is expected to use the Exynos 2600 processor instead.
