Samsung mobile chief to talk with Qualcomm on Galaxy S25 chips

Global smartphone leader Samsung Electronics Co.'s mobile business chief is expected to hold talks with senior executives of Qualcomm Inc. about supply prices and volumes of its application processors (APs) to be incorporated into the South Korean tech giant’s next Galaxy S25 series.

TM Roh, president and head of Samsung’s Mobile eXperience (MX) division, plans to meet Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon and other executives of the global mobile chip leader at next week's Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, industry sources in Seoul said on Thursday.

Qualcomm will unveil its next-generation mobile AP Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, produced via a 3-nanometer process designed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), and which will be mounted on all Samsung Galaxy S25 smartphones, at the Oct. 21-23 event on the island of Maui.

Samsung had planned to use its in-house AP Exynos 2500 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 for the Galaxy S25 series slated for release in January. However, it decided to install Qualcomm’s chips instead as the Exynos 2500’s production yield has yet to be improved.

Roh is expected to negotiate with Qualcomm over the supply of Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 as Samsung's decision was seen to significantly increase the AP’s prices, according to industry sources in Seoul.

XR COOPERATION

Samsung’s mobile business chief also plans to discuss extended reality (XR) devices, which Samsung is co-developing with Qualcomm and Google, those sources said.

“We aim to establish an XR ecosystem ahead of the launch of XR devices,” Roh said in July.

Before flying to Hawaii, Roh is scheduled to visit major US cities such as Dallas, Texas,  to check on sales of the Galaxy series in North America.

Samsung plans to enlarge its share in the premium smartphone segment there by enhancing its artificial intelligence functions, in its battle against the region’s dominant player Apple Inc., which holds a 52% share of the US market.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra, the top-end model in the S24 series with AI features, topped the list of best smartphones in the latest US Consumer Reports, beating Apple’s iPhone 16 models.

Write to Chae-Yeon Kim at why29@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.