A number of issues converged upon Samsung final yr which have interfered with the corporate’s try to construct the 3nm Exynos 2500 utility processor (AP) and apply it to the upcoming flagship Galaxy S25 sequence. The very first thing, which we have mentioned earlier than, is Samsung Foundry’s poor yield at 3nm. This is able to require Samsung to spend extra money to acquire the variety of costly silicon wafers it could must construct sufficient Exynos 2500 chips to produce Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25+ items in every single place however within the U.S., China, and Canada.
Reserve your Samsung Galaxy S25+ or S25 Extremely handset now!
You may anticipate that Samsung could be engaged on fixing Samsung Foundry’s yield points in order that the Exynos 2600 AP could possibly be used subsequent yr to energy the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ in most markets. However one thing properly past Samsung’s management is rumored to happen which could power the Korean producer to as soon as once more use a Snapdragon chipset on all Galaxy S26 items subsequent yr. A report says that Arm is considering implementing as a lot as a 300% hike within the per-chip royalty funds it collects from those that license its Arm v9 structure.
For its Exynos utility processors, Samsung buys Arm’s CPU cores, and costs for these cores may rise sharply. Whereas Qualcomm did increase the worth of the Snapdragon 8 Elite AP that will probably be working your complete Galaxy S25 line this yr, Samsung may be capable of negotiate higher pricing for the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 for subsequent yr ought to it resolve to overlook concerning the Exynos 2600. That is as a result of Qualcomm now makes use of its personal customized Oryon CPU cores with its chipsets.
Will Samsung proceed constructing flagship variations of its Exynos chipset? | Picture credit-Samsung
Qualcomm nonetheless pays Arm to license its instruction set structure to be sure that the San Diego-based fabless chip designer’s semiconductors are appropriate with Android, which is an Arm-based software program. However any worth hike introduced by Arm wouldn’t influence Qualcomm as a lot as it could Samsung. The latter used to provide customized cores for its Exynos chipsets; whereas that might assist Samsung with pricing, the corporate stopped making customized cores in 2020 and there are not any indicators that it plans on resuming this.
The mixture of horrendously low yields on the 3nm node by Samsung Foundry and Qualcomm’s worth improve for the Snapdragon 8 Elite simply may power Samsung to hike pricing for the Galaxy S25 sequence this yr. Pricing subsequent yr for the Galaxy S26 line will rely upon whether or not Arm raises its royalty charges for the Arm v9 structure and by how a lot. And if Samsung decides to maintain the Exynos 2600 round, a significant component figuring out the worth of the Galaxy S26 sequence will probably be how properly Samsung Foundry improves its manufacturing yield. At this level, it is all a multitude.