The 2nm Reunion: Qualcomm Confirms Samsung Foundry Talks at CES 2026

During the proceedings of CES 2026, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon formally confirmed to the press that the corporation is currently engaged in deliberations with Samsung regarding a strategic foundry alliance for its 2nm process. This marks Qualcomm’s inaugural public indication of a potential return to Samsung’s manufacturing fold since their collaboration on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 platform in 2022.

Hitherto, Amon had maintained a steadfast commitment to a multi-foundry procurement strategy; nevertheless, Qualcomm has relied exclusively on TSMC’s fabrication expertise for its Snapdragon platforms in recent years. At the summit, he verified that negotiations for Samsung’s 2nm node are underway, further revealing that the design phase for a computing platform utilizing this process has already reached fruition, with commercial deployment anticipated shortly. While Qualcomm preserves its enduring partnership with TSMC, the pivot toward Samsung’s 2nm technology suggests that TSMC’s nascent capacity has been largely monopolized by titans such as Apple, NVIDIA, and MediaTek. Consequently, Qualcomm must embrace a dual-sourcing model to safeguard the stability of its product supply chain.

The market, however, remains haunted by the legacies of the Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Both were manufactured exclusively via Samsung’s nodes and subsequently suffered from substandard yields, excessive power consumption, and thermal inefficiencies, ultimately compelling Qualcomm to migrate its production to TSMC. These historical grievances have previously eroded market confidence in Samsung’s advanced process nodes.

Nevertheless, securing Qualcomm’s patronage once more could serve as a powerful catalyst for rehabilitating Samsung’s industrial reputation. Indeed, Samsung’s foundry division has recently achieved several triumphs, including a reported $16.5 billion contract with Tesla to manufacture the next-generation “AI6” silicon. Procuring Qualcomm’s 2nm orders would not only optimize capacity utilization but also serve as a definitive validation of process stability. Despite confirming these discussions, Qualcomm has stopped short of certifying whether its next flagship platform will immediately transition to Samsung’s facilities.

Given the current competitive landscape, Qualcomm is likely to adopt a tiered or regionalized stratification. This strategy would involve retaining its most elite, power-sensitive flagship chips at TSMC while delegating sub-flagship or market-specific iterations to Samsung—or perhaps awaiting empirical proof of stable 2nm yields before committing to large-scale production.

For the end consumer, the ultimate metrics of success remain raw performance and thermal efficiency. Should Samsung’s 2nm node successfully exorcise the ghosts of past overheating scandals, it may finally herald a renaissance of consumer confidence in “Samsung-forged” processors.

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• The 2nm Overflow: Why AMD and Tesla are Deserting TSMC for Samsung’s Texas Fab
• The 2nm Revolution: Samsung Unveils the Exynos 2600 with All–Big-Core Power & HPB Cooling
• Qualcomm CEO: Intel’s Foundry Is Not Ready for Our Chips