Qualcomm hints most Galaxy S26 devices will use Snapdragon chips

Samsung’s next lineup of non-foldable flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S26 series, is expected to offer three devices: Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra. The brand is said to offer the top-of-the-line model with Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipset for mobile devices, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, globally. 

As for the base and mid variants, the tech giant is expected to offer them with Qualcomm’s SoC in most countries around the world, and with the in-house developed and manufactured Exynos 2600 in other regions. However, there was no confirmation about it. Well, Qualcomm has now hinted that it may be the case.

Yesterday, at CES 2026, Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon told reporters that the company was in talks with Samsung to get the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 made on the South Korean tech giant’s 2nm fabrication process. While that was huge news, he revealed something else that potential Galaxy S26 series buyers may love to hear.

While talking about it, he hinted that even though Samsung was planning to use the in-house developed and manufactured Exynos 2600 for the Galaxy S26 series, Qualcomm’s market share in chipsets for flagship Galaxy phones may not change, as the South Korean tech giant will mainly use the Snapdragon chipsets for these devices.

His exact words were “Premium phones, which Samsung focuses on, are experiencing high growth. Since Samsung always secures more than two suppliers, Qualcomm will be able to maintain a 75% market share for Galaxy APs.”

While that may be great news for potential Galaxy S26 series buyers, they will not be happy to know that Samsung is planning to launch these devices at a higher price than the Galaxy S25 series despite offering minimal hardware upgrades.