At CES 2026, Qualcomm‘s CEO Cristiano Amon claimed that they will work with Samsung’s foundry unit to produce its next-generation mobile application processors (APs), which were recently made by TSMC.
Amon said it held discussions with Samsung on contract production using the latest 2nm process, adding it completed the design work, with “the goal of commercialisation soon”, South Korea-based tech analyst Jukan wrote in a post on X.
Jukan stated this is the first time Qualcomm has revealed plans to turn to Samsung for next-generation AP production.
In April, the Seoul Economic Daily reported Samsung was finalising an AP deal with the US chip company. A win would mark its first Qualcomm smartphone AP order in three years.
The publication noted Samsung would only win some of Qualcomm’s next-gen AP business, with TSMC to produce the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 using its 3nm process.
Samsung’s foundry business, after struggling in 2024 with technical issues and low yields, turned its operations around and lined up major contracts in 2025.
In August, it secured a KRW22.8 trillion ($15.8 billion) contract running to end-2033 to supply 2nm AI chips to Tesla.
It also signed smaller contracts with global tech company for AI and HPC chips.
Source: Mobile World Live
Image Credit: Samsung & Qualcomm
