The 2nm Reunion: Qualcomm Confirms Samsung Foundry Talks at CES 2026

During CES 2026, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon formally confirmed that the company is in talks with Samsung regarding a strategic foundry alliance for its 2nm process. This marks Qualcomm’s first public indication of a potential return to Samsung’s manufacturing fold since the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 collaboration in 2022. The executive also reiterated a multi-foundry procurement approach, noting Qualcomm has relied exclusively on TSMC for recent Snapdragon platforms.

Negotiations for Samsung’s 2nm node are under way, and the design phase for a computing platform based on this process has already reached fruition with commercial deployment anticipated shortly. While Qualcomm continues its partnership with TSMC, the move toward Samsung’s 2nm tech suggests TSMC’s capacity has been heavily booked by Apple, NVIDIA, and MediaTek, nudging Qualcomm toward a dual-sourcing model to safeguard supply chain stability.

The piece also recalls Samsung’s foundry wins, including a reported $16.5 billion contract with Tesla to manufacture the next-generation “AI6” silicon, a potential catalyst if Qualcomm commits toSamsung’s 2nm production.