During Samsung Unpacked 2025, we heard that the Galaxy S25 series phones have a “custom” (sort of) Qualcomm Snapdragon chip to power its features. That’s pretty cool — we know Snapdragon chips perform well and we’ve seen what building an AI-tailored SoC allows in Google’s Pixel phones. The 3nm Qualcomm SM8750-AB Snapdragon 8 Elite paired with a Samsung-spec NPU should work out well if Samsung can tame the heat it will generate.
But I’m going to guess that it was awfully expensive. Here’s the rub — Samsung could have made that chip in its own chip foundry, built to its own specs, and tailored perfectly for the Galaxy S25. Instead, it paid extra on top of Qualcomm’s hefty prices.
I’m betting it will within the next five years. It doesn’t make sense to continue to do things the way they were done for the S25 when there is a better and more profitable way. Unless Samsung stops making phones, I think the Galaxy S30 will have one hell of an Exynos SoC running the show.
The only possible hurdle is Qualcomm. Qualcomm will do anything to keep Samsung as a customer. Samsung may put Exynos chips in some of its products, but it ships a lot of phones, tablets, and watches with a Snapdragon something-or-other inside of them. That means a lot of money is moving from Samsung’s pockets into Qualcomm’s.
It’s a good relationship for both sides, though. It’s not like Qualcomm is ripping off Samsung or anything because it gets devices that work better than they would otherwise, especially in North America, which all companies cherish the most for some silly reason. Maybe it’s because we’re so willing to throw money at anyone or anything.
Qualcomm wouldn’t have to lose Samsung as a customer and actually might make more profit another way — by licensing very specific things under very specific terms.
Hypothetically, let’s talk Galaxy S30 even though the Galaxy S25 just came out. The Galaxy S30, Galaxy S30 Plus, and Galaxy S30 Ultra could have a unique Exynos Ultra Elite 9000 chip that will never be in any other phone.
It would be made by Samsung with wireless connectivity options, core design, and maybe even GPU cores built using Qualcomm’s design. Technically, it’s possible: Samsung licenses ARM design from ARM Holdings. It then licenses the changes to those designs that Qualcomm has made from Qualcomm. It can add its own suite of co-processors and NPU cores to build a unique, powerful chip.
Qualcomm doesn’t have to worry about fabrication issues, foundry time, quality control, or shipping dates. It sits back and collects something like $0.11 from every single Galaxy S30 series phone sold just because it lets Samsung look at some computer files. Cha-ching.
On paper, it would look like a loss until you separate profit from income. Qualcomm spends no money letting Samsung do this, so every penny is profit. Qualcomm, like every other mega-corporation, loves the smell of profit.
On Samsung’s end, things smell just as profity. First, it doesn’t have to pay extra for a Snapdragon SoC designed to integrate with any custom fabrications or additions it has. That’s enough reason to want this. Samsung can also expand its own chip foundry business to meet demand, eventually becoming able to fab 3nm chips for other companies.
It wouldn’t be able to sell these custom chips to anyone else or use them in products not covered under the hypothetical license. It probably wouldn’t be able to because every S30 worldwide could ship with this new chip, and that’s likely to be a bazillion phones.
I don’t see any downside other than Qualcomm not being able to brag about all the chips it sells to Samsung or saying how it makes “the most advanced chip for the most advanced phone in the universe” or something equally silly. Qualcomm probably loves being able to do that, but I’ll bet it loves making money without spending a penny to do it even more.
Let’s do this. It’s about time Samsung did something amazing again.
