Samsung Electronics’ Exynos 2600 (Photo courtesy of Samsung Electronics)
Samsung Electronics has unveiled the world’s first mobile application processor (AP) Exynos 2600 built using a 2-nanometer (one-billionth of a meter) process, announcing it has entered mass production of the new chip. The company plans to equip the self-developed Exynos 2600 in the flagship smartphone Galaxy S26 set to launch in February next year, simultaneously reducing chip procurement costs and accelerating the turnaround of its foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) business.
On Dec. 19, Samsung Electronics disclosed detailed specifications of the Exynos 2600 through its website and marked the product status as “mass production.” Samsung Electronics’ disclosure of the Exynos 2600 production status as mass production is interpreted to mean it has secured yield rates sufficient for installation in tens of millions of smartphones.
Exynos is a name combining the Greek words “smart (exypnmos)” and “green (prasino),” and is a mobile AP product independently designed by Samsung Electronics’ System LSI division, which handles the semiconductor (DS) business.
Smartphones are cutting-edge devices that shrink high-performance computers to palm size. As the area is reduced, components serving as the brain—central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), neural processing unit (NPU), modem, and memory semiconductors—must be integrated into a single chip in the form of a system-on-chip (SoC) AP for smartphone installation. Since high performance and efficiency must be maintained simultaneously, implementing high-performance APs requires advanced technology, to the extent that APs are called assemblies of semiconductor technology.
Samsung Electronics has also experienced considerable difficulties during the AP development process. Performance degradation issues due to overheating were consistently raised in Galaxy smartphones equipped with the Exynos 2100 and 2200 series, and during this process, Qualcomm, which was a major foundry customer, assigned all chip production below 4 nanometers to TSMC in the second half of 2022, creating internal and external crises. Additionally, even Samsung Electronics’ Mobile (MX) business division equipped the Galaxy S25 with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite instead of its own Exynos AP.
Samsung Electronics plans to put an end to such controversies by disclosing detailed specifications along with the Exynos 2600 mass production news. It announced that CPU computing performance improved by up to 39% compared to the previous generation (Exynos 2500) with a deca-core (10 cores) based on Arm’s latest architecture. It also enhanced generative artificial intelligence (AI) performance by 113% with a powerful NPU.
In particular, the Exynos 2600 is expected to end the overheating controversy that had followed the Exynos series like a tag. The Exynos 2600 introduced heat path block (HPB) for the first time in mobile SoCs, reducing thermal resistance by up to 16% to maintain stable chip internal temperature even under high-load situations. Additionally, it supports ultra-high-resolution cameras up to 320 megapixels (MP) and helps smartphones take smarter and clearer photos with newly introduced AI-based visual perception system (VPS) and APV codec.
Samsung Electronics is expected to fire the signal of revival by equipping the Exynos 2600 in the Galaxy S26 launching in February next year. Industry analysts expect the company to separately equip the Galaxy S26 with the Exynos 2600 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite 5th generation (Gen5) by model and region.
If the Exynos 2600 is applied to the Galaxy S26 series, Samsung Electronics can catch two birds with one stone: cost reduction for the mobile business division and foundry performance recovery. Samsung Electronics’ mobile AP procurement costs from Qualcomm and others reached 11 trillion won through the third quarter of this year as semiconductor prices soared due to the memory super cycle effect. If the Exynos 2600 is equipped in the Galaxy S26, chip procurement costs can be significantly reduced.
The industry expects the foundry business will also recover rapidly. When the Galaxy S26 equipped with the Exynos 2600—the industry’s first to apply 2-nanometer gate-all-around (GAA) process—is officially launched, Samsung Electronics foundry will simultaneously prove its fine process and mass production yield capabilities. Additional orders from big tech companies including Tesla, Apple, and Qualcomm may follow. An industry insider explained, “If the Exynos 2600 settles in well, foundry business performance recovery will accelerate, increasing the possibility of turning to profitability in 2027.”
