Samsung's next-gen Exynos 2600 limited inside of Galaxy S26 smartphones sold in South Korea

Samsung's next-gen in-house Exynos 2600 processor will only be found inside of the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus smartphones sold in South Korea, with Qualcomm handling the rest -- as well as Samsung's next-gen flagship Galaxy S26 Ultra.

In a new report from DigiTimes, we're hearing that Samsung will only use its Exynos 2600 processor in its home market of South Korea, with the report stating that there are yield issues, existing contracts with Qualcomm to use its latest Snapdragon SoC, and residual perception issues with customers all culminating in limiting how much the Exynos 2600 is used inside of its new smartphones.

Samsung is fabbing its new Exynos 2600 processor on its in-house 2nm GAA process node, with the new SoC already in production, but it seems that its use will be super-limited to just the South Korean market. Qualcomm management said during its recent earnings call that it expected to maintain its new 75% baseline share with Samsung for its next-gen Galaxy S26 family of smartphones.

• Read more: Samsung says its next-gen Exynos 2600 processor has been 'refined at the core'

Samsung will be hosting an "AI-focused" Galaxy Unpacked event for its next-gen Galaxy S26 launch in San Francisco on February 25, 2026. We will be introduced to the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra, as well as its new Exynos 2600 processor.

It was just last week that Samsung teased its next-gen Exynos, and that it was "Refined at the Core", "optimized at every level" and that the "next Exynos is coming. It's time to express the exceptional. Coming soon". At the time, I wrote: "Personally, I really don't like the PR crap these companies push out, and Samsung isn't the only one, Qualcomm does it massively, AMD, Intel, all of them".

I will always stand by that, the PR speak is so cringe, and now Samsung will limit the Exynos 2600 to just South Korea? How optimized. How exceptional.