Samsung is reportedly bringing back its in-house Exynos chip for the upcoming Galaxy S26 smartphone, a move that signals a renewed confidence in its own chip-making abilities. According to industry sources, the new Exynos 2600 processor will power the S26 in several markets, reviving the company’s “two-chip” strategy.
For years, Samsung has used a mix of its own Exynos chips and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors in its flagship Galaxy S series. However, for the last two generations, the S23 and S25, the company relied exclusively on Qualcomm’s chips due to problems with its own. The failure of the Exynos 2500 was a major blow to Samsung’s chip division and hurt the company’s overall profitability.
Now, it seems Samsung has sorted out its issues. The decision to bring back the Exynos is a clear sign that the company has made significant improvements in both the chip’s performance and its ability to manufacture it at scale. One report even claimed that the new chip’s AI processing unit is six times faster than Apple’s latest processors.
While Samsung hasn’t officially confirmed the news, the return of the Exynos is a big deal. It’s still unclear how many of the S26 models will use the new chip, but in the past, Samsung has typically used its own processors in the phones sold in Korea and Europe. The big question now is whether the company will be confident enough to put the new Exynos 2600 in its top-of-the-line Galaxy S26 Ultra, a model that has exclusively used Qualcomm chips in recent years.
