[Exclusive] Samsung Electronics' First 2nm Chip to Launch This November

Exynos 2600 Mass Production Set for November This Year
Galaxy S26 Prioritized for First-Quarter Release Next Year
2nm Yield Stabilizing, Raising Hopes for Foundry Recovery

Samsung Electronics has chosen the next-generation mobile chipset 'Exynos 2600' as the first product to apply the 2㎚ (1㎚ = one billionth of a meter) leading-edge process. The company plans to start mass production of the Exynos 2600 from November. The confirmation of the product's mass production timing is interpreted as a sign that stable yield is being secured in the 2㎚ process. Attention is focused on whether the struggling foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) business can prepare a foothold for a rebound.

Samsung Electronics mobile chipset Exynos. Samsung Electronics

A source familiar with Samsung Electronics' internal affairs said on the 10th, "Internally, the mass production timing of Exynos 2600 has been confirmed for November this year, and testing is underway," adding, "The yield is understood to have risen to a considerable level." It is reported that the yield was around 30% during prototype production earlier this year and has recently approached about 50%.

Exynos is a mobile semiconductor that acts as the "brain of smartphones," developed and produced by Samsung Electronics' non-memory business division. It is designed by the System LSI division and produced by the foundry.

The SF2 process applied to Exynos 2600 is the next-generation 2㎚ process that the foundry division is developing with the goal of mass production in the second half of this year. Like the 3㎚ process, it utilizes Gate-All-Around (GAA) technology. Compared to 3㎚, performance improves by 12%, power efficiency by 25%, while the area is reduced by about 5%.

Earlier, Han Jin-man, President of Samsung Electronics' Foundry Business Division, presented the "fast ramp-up (early mass production volume expansion)" of the 2㎚ process as the top priority task in his first message to employees shortly after taking office at the end of last year. The confirmation of the Exynos 2600 mass production schedule is interpreted as the realization of that goal.

Exynos 2600 is expected to be the first product to utilize the 2㎚ process. The Exynos 2500 developed last year used the 3㎚ process, but due to difficulties in securing 3㎚ yield at the foundry, that chip was not installed in the Galaxy S25. Instead, the competitor Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 was fully adopted.

However, even though Samsung Electronics has raised the 2㎚ process yield to nearly 50%, the gap with Taiwan's TSMC is still considered significant. TSMC is reported to have exceeded 60% initial yield for the 2㎚ process earlier this year.

Samsung Electronics' top priority is to equip the Galaxy S26 model, scheduled for release in the first quarter of next year, with the Exynos 2600. To this end, the foundry division recently formed a dedicated team to improve the Exynos 2600 process. Samsung launched Exynos as a mobile application processor (AP) brand in 2011, but has since consistently used Qualcomm's APs either in combination or exclusively. Considering that Qualcomm, a global leader in the AP market, raises prices by 15-20% annually, this is an essential task for "AP self-reliance."

A semiconductor industry insider said, "Exynos 2600 will enter prototype testing in May, and the decision on whether to equip it in the Galaxy S26 will be made in the second half of the year," adding, "This year, performance will be maximized in mobile chipsets, and next year, special nodes for high-performance computing (HPC) will be added, aiming for 1.4㎚ mass production in 2027."