"Galaxy Unpacked 2026," held in London last week, was a stage that showcased Samsung Electronics' mobile technology innovation. But the company's push for self-reliance in the application processor (AP), the "brain chip" that forms the foundation of mobile technology, seems to have regressed instead. Last year, the "Galaxy Z Flip7" was equipped entirely with Samsung Electronics' own AP, "Exynos." By contrast, this year's "Z Flip8" uses Qualcomm's "Snapdragon" in the United States and China, the main markets for foldable phones, sharply reducing the volume of Exynos chips installed. The Galaxy Watch, which also used Exynos last year, and the artificial intelligence (AI) glasses unveiled for the first time this year both adopted Snapdragon.
Exynos matters to both Samsung Electronics' (005930.KS) finished products (DX) division and its semiconductor (DS) division. With Qualcomm having signaled a substantial price increase, Exynos serves as a second option for the DX division to reduce its dependence on Qualcomm chips and strengthen its pricing negotiation power. For the DS division, Exynos is the flagship non-memory business that can help diversify its memory-focused operations. For this reason, despite performance that falls short of Qualcomm's, the DS division has steadily developed Exynos while the DX division has taken responsibility for demand. New Galaxy product launches are considered a peak season for Exynos, but this time a decline in demand compared with last year has been confirmed, heightening concerns.
Even more concerning is that the "one-team" system surrounding Exynos is unstable. According to industry sources, the recent conflict between the DS and DX divisions over Samsung Electronics' performance-based bonuses has also affected the strategy for installing Exynos in Galaxy phones. As a result of this year's wage negotiations, DS division employees receive an average of several hundred million won in performance bonuses, while DX employees received only 6 million won, deepening dissatisfaction over treatment and worker-to-worker conflict. The DX division, which urgently needs to maximize the AI performance of new products with Qualcomm chips and lead an earnings turnaround, inevitably has less motivation to also look after the non-memory business, which is faring much better.
The growth of Exynos carries important meaning not only for Samsung Electronics but for Korea's entire semiconductor ecosystem. In an industry structure heavily concentrated in memory, it serves as one of the few focal points for accumulating non-memory talent and technology. It has been consistently pointed out that Korea can win the battle for semiconductor supremacy only by expanding beyond memory into non-memory areas such as Exynos over the medium to long term. I hope that Galaxy Unpacked 2027 will be a stage that showcases not only mobile innovation but also the revival of Exynos, as Samsung Electronics strengthens technology investment and internal cohesion.
