Samsung Exynos 2600 Confirmed to Be the First Chipset Built on 2nm GAA Process

Samsung's Exynos 2600 chipset is expected to debut soon as the successor to the Exynos 2500. The new chipset could be positioned as the company's next flagship mobile chipset, and it is likely to power select variants of the Galaxy S26 lineup next year. As we wait for the formal reveal, Samsung has confirmed the process node of the new in-house chipset. It's anticipated to deliver enhanced performance to rival Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2.

As per an X post by IDC Analyst Bryan Ma (@bryanbma), Samsung has officially confirmed the Exynos 2600 chip for the first time. The company reportedly revealed during a recent Q&A session that the upcoming Exynos 2600 will be its first flagship chip built on Samsung Foundry's 2nm GAA (Gate-All-Around) process. The chipset is said to deliver a notable boost in NPU performance compared to its predecessor, "with enhanced support for on-device AI functionality".

The information likely stems from Samsung's Q2 2025 earnings call held on Thursday (July 31). In its financial report, the company confirmed that its Foundry Business will begin mass production of a new mobile SoC using the 2nm GAA process in the second half of this year. Samsung also noted plans to enhance factory utilisation and boost profitability by expanding sales to major customers.

Samsung Exynos 2600 SoC: What We Know So Far

Rumours about Exynos 2600 have been circulating for a while now. It is expected to feature enhanced thermal performance, thanks to a new Heat Pass Block (HPB) integrated into the semiconductor package alongside DRAM. If accurate, these improvements could help Samsung close the gap in power efficiency and battery performance compared to the latest Snapdragon chipsets.

The Exynos 2600 was recently spotted on Geekbench with model number S5E9965. The SoC received 2,155 points in the single-core test and 7,788 points in the multi-core test. It has a 10-core CPU setup, with a prime core clocked at 3.55GHz, three performance cores capped at 2.96GHz, and six cores operating at 2.46GHz.

Some variants of the upcoming Galaxy S26 series are expected to run on the Exynos 2600 chipset. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is likely to stick with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 chipset. For reference, the Galaxy S25 series runs on Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC in all markets and was a noticeable shift from the Galaxy S24 series, which featured Exynos 2400 SoC for the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ models in select markets.