Industry chatter suggests this could hand Samsung a rare manufacturing edge in the flagship smartphone space, at least for a year. The Exynos 2600 is expected to debut inside the Galaxy S26 range, while Qualcomm’s 3nm chip will likely power the same phones in certain regions.

According to well-known Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station, Qualcomm’s follow-up, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, will only move to TSMC’s 2nm N2P process in 2026. That refined version of the N2 node is expected to bring around a five per cent performance boost along with better efficiency.

Samsung Foundry’s early 2nm rollout could mean the Galaxy S26’s Exynos models match or even outperform Snapdragon versions for the first time in years. The Exynos 2600 is rumoured to have upgraded AI cores, a next-generation GPU and improved thermal management thanks to the tighter process.

Qualcomm’s Gen 6 chip, on the other hand, will reportedly support LPDDR6 RAM and UFS 5.0 storage, but insiders warn it could be one of the most expensive smartphone processors ever made.

Samsung has long relied on Qualcomm chips for most Galaxy S models, but if the 2nm Exynos delivers as promised, this could finally be the moment when the company’s in-house silicon stands toe to toe with its American rival.

For now, it looks like Samsung has managed to beat TSMC to the next node.