Samsung and Qualcomm Deepen Strategic Partnership Across Galaxy Ecosystem

Samsung's recent announcements showcase an even tighter collaboration with Qualcomm, integrating cutting-edge Snapdragon processors across nearly all flagship devices, wearables, and emerging smart technologies.

• ✨ Qualcomm Snapdragon chips power the majority of Samsung's latest Galaxy devices, including foldables and smartwatches.
• ✨ The Galaxy Z Flip 8 offers a regional split, utilizing Exynos in select markets and Snapdragon in others like the US and China.
• ✨ New wearables and smart glasses developed with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker exclusively feature Qualcomm AR and watch platforms.
• ✨ Executives highlight a shared 30-year history of technological innovation and hardware development.

Exclusive Integration Across the Galaxy Ecosystem

Samsung's recent Galaxy Unpacked event underscored how close the company is to Qualcomm. Despite reports claiming that Samsung wants to use in-house Exynos chips in more Galaxy devices across its ecosystem, the company has used Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips in almost all its newly announced products.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Watch 9, and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 all use Qualcomm Snapdragon chips exclusively around the world.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip, while the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 use the Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset, which is built on a cutting-edge 3nm process.

The Galaxy Z Flip 8 also uses a Snapdragon chip in select markets, including China and the US. In other markets, it uses the in-house Exynos 2600 processor.

Even Samsung's newly unveiled smart glasses, developed in partnership with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, use Qualcomm's Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipset exclusively.

Samsung's first mixed-reality headset, which launched a few months ago, also uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset exclusively.

Samsung's high-end phones, including the Galaxy S26 Ultra, use Qualcomm's highest-performance Snapdragon chips with the “for Galaxy” branding. Many midrange Galaxy phones, such as the Galaxy A27 and Galaxy M47, also use Snapdragon chips. Some Galaxy Book laptops, including the Galaxy Book 4 Edge and Galaxy Book 6 Edge, use Qualcomm's Snapdragon X series chips.

Qualcomm also uses Samsung Electro-Mechanics' FC-BGA substrates in its server-grade AI chips. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon appeared on stage during Samsung's recent Galaxy Unpacked event and said that Qualcomm and Samsung have worked together for the past 30 years, highlighting the strength of their partnership.

Which processors power the latest Samsung foldable phones?

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra are exclusively powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor globally.

Are Qualcomm chips used in Samsung wearable devices?

Yes, the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 rely completely on the Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset built on an advanced 3nm architecture.

How long have Samsung and Qualcomm collaborated?

Executives confirmed during the Galaxy Unpacked event that the two tech giants have maintained a close working relationship for the past 30 years.

🔎 Ultimately, the continued reliance on Qualcomm's high-performance silicon across foldables, wearables, laptops, and mixed-reality headsets proves that this three-decade partnership remains vital to Samsung's hardware strategy and future ecosystem growth.