The Apple A18 and Snapdragon 8 Elite chips used in the iPhone 16 and Galaxy S25 series flagships are both manufactured using the 3nm process. While most previous rumors suggested that Apple could be the first company to launch a phone with a 2nm chipset, a new report sheds light on Samsung's efforts to bring 2nm chips to the upcoming Galaxy S26 series before any of its competitors.
According to a new report from SamMobile, Samsung Foundry has made significant progress with the 2nm manufacturing process, paving the way for the launch of the Exynos 2600 chipset at 2nm.
The South Korean tech giant had previously dropped Exynos chips from the Galaxy S25 series due to performance issues, low power consumption, and the superiority of the latest Qualcomm chipsets. However, Exynos-branded chips could return with the Galaxy S26 devices, which are expected to be announced in early 2026.
Samsung Foundry has been struggling in 2024, and even Korean sources reported that the company has cut its investment in the division by more than half, allocating only 5 trillion won (about $3.5 billion) to Foundry operations by 2025. Furthermore, Samsung may consider outsourcing the production of Exynos chips to a third party, namely TSMC.
However, Samsung is not alone in this race. Renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said that Apple will launch the iPhone 18 series with 2nm chips in the second half of 2026. According to Kuo, TSMC's testing capacity has reached a significant rate and is constantly improving.
Another big name in the industry, Qualcomm, is also catching up with Samsung and Apple. According to Digital Chat Station on Weibo, Qualcomm has started working on its next-generation flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 3, which will be built on TSMC’s 2nm process and could launch in 2026 on flagship Android phones. If Samsung fails to launch the Exynos 2600 chipset on the 2nm process, it will almost certainly use Qualcomm’s 2nm chips for the Galaxy S26 series.
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