Qualcomm recently introduced the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chipsets based on a 2nm manufacturing process. Qualcomm was previously rumoured to use Samsung Foundry for some of its high-end chips. However, new chipsets are not manufactured by Samsung Foundry. Now, the chipmaker reportedly revealed that it is working with Samsung Foundry on future Snapdragon mobile platforms, indicating that some of the upcoming Qualcomm flagship chipsets could be built on Samsung’s advanced 2nm process technology.
Qualcomm Evaluating Samsung’s 2nm Process
As reported by ZDNET Korea, during a briefing at the Snapdragon Summit 2026, Chris Patrick, Qualcomm’s Senior Vice President and Head of Mobile Handsets, offered insights about the company’s relationship with Samsung Electronics. The executive reportedly confirmed that ” Qualcomm is continuing comprehensive technological cooperation with Samsung Electronics”
Chris Patrick reportedly said that Qualcomm is conducting an in-depth analysis of Samsung’s 2nm process technology to determine how to apply the technology to future products. “Samsung Foundry is a long-standing core partner of Qualcomm and will remain an important partner in the future,” he added.
Meanwhile, Qualcomm is also said to be working with Samsung Electronics’ Memory Business Unit to prepare for the commercialisation of LPDDR6, a next-generation mobile DRAM.
Qualcomm has not confirmed which specific chipset will be produced using Samsung’s process or when such a product could enter mass production. Qualcomm is also currently partnered with TSMC, but the latest report suggests that Samsung Foundry could also remain an important manufacturing partner of the chipmaker.
Qualcomm and Samsung already collaborate for wearables and smart glasses. Samsung’s latest smartwatches use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite platform.
Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 at the Snapdragon Summit last week. The duo are built on a 2nm process and feature Adreno GPUs and Hexagon NPUs. They have Qualcomm’s custom Oryon CPU architecture and have a peak clock speed of 5GHz. Xiaomi launched the Xiaomi 18 Pro with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6. The Xiaomi 18 Pro Max runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chipset.
