Samsung has reportedly decided to equip its entire Galaxy S26 lineup with the in-house Exynos 2600 processor, marking a major strategic shift away from Qualcomm and signaling the company’s growing confidence in its next-generation silicon.
The Exynos 2600 is built on Samsung’s advanced 2-nanometer “Gate-All-Around” (GAA) process and is said to deliver up to six times faster AI performance than Apple’s latest A-series chip. Early testing also points to roughly 75% stronger GPU performance compared with the current generation, along with significant efficiency gains.
If confirmed, the move would represent Samsung’s boldest step yet toward reclaiming control of its premium smartphone chip strategy. For years, the company has relied heavily on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors in key markets such as the U.S. and China, while using Exynos chips mainly in Europe and parts of Asia. Deploying its own silicon globally could help Samsung cut costs, enhance supply-chain resilience, and strengthen its position in the rapidly expanding AI smartphone race.
According to leaked benchmark data, the Exynos 2600 reportedly outperforms Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 by around 30% in AI inference performance and nearly 29% in GPU output. Samsung says its neural processing unit (NPU) can handle on-device AI tasks with minimal latency, reducing reliance on cloud servers for functions such as image generation, translation, and voice recognition.
If Samsung’s performance claims hold up in real-world testing, the Galaxy S26 could mark a turning point not only for the company’s smartphone division but also for the mobile AI market as a whole. On-device intelligence has become a key differentiator among hardware makers, and Apple, Google, and Qualcomm are all racing to develop chips optimized for generative AI workloads.
The Galaxy S26 series is expected to debut in early 2026. While Samsung has not publicly commented on regional chip variations, multiple leaks suggest that all S26 models — including the Ultra — will ship exclusively with the Exynos 2600. If true, the decision underscores Samsung’s determination to challenge Apple not only in design and software but also at the very heart of the smartphone — the processor itself.
