The Elec reported from Snapdragon Summit 2026 in Maui that Qualcomm is putting its entire next-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 lineup on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Chris Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handsets, said on Sept. 22 that all of the latest 2-nanometer components announced that day are manufactured by TSMC.
That covers both the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and the Extreme version. The Elec does not print separate wafer allocation shares for each SKU. It also does not list a unit price Qualcomm will charge OEMs for either chip.
Flagship Snapdragon silicon has sat at TSMC since 2022. The paper notes the switch followed heat and efficiency complaints on the first-generation Snapdragon 8, which Samsung Foundry built in 2021. Qualcomm has not returned an advanced-node flagship to Samsung since then.
Samsung Foundry talks stay open
Patrick still left a door for Samsung. “Foundry partnerships are more important than ever at this point,” he said, per The Elec. “We value our partnerships with both Samsung Foundry and TSMC.” He added that if there is great technology, there is always an opportunity to work together.
Earlier this year, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said the company had begun discussions with Samsung Foundry on 2-nanometer cooperation, The Elec writes. Samsung said in April it was reviewing plans for a second fab, F2, at its Taylor, Texas site while talking to global customers. The Elec says no advanced-process partnership has been finalized.
Industry sources told the paper Samsung’s Taylor plant recently began wafer production on a 2-nanometer process. Those wafers are believed to be prototypes of Tesla’s AI5 AI chip, not Snapdragon phone silicon. The Elec does not name the sources.
Why a second foundry still matters
The Elec frames Qualcomm’s interest in Samsung as supply insurance and bargaining power. AI data-center demand has tightened advanced foundry capacity. A second source would reduce sole reliance on TSMC for the phone flagship node. Patrick did not say when a Samsung deal might close, or what process node it would use first.
Our earlier SMIC and TSMC 2Q26 foundry ranking put TSMC at 72.5% of that quarter’s foundry revenue. Separately, the TSMC 2nm GAA ramp note tracked Kinik and PSI suppliers tied to the same 2nm build-out. Neither piece covered Qualcomm’s Gen 6 foundry split. Yesterday’s Samsung DRAM margin brief was a memory-profit story, not an AP foundry call.
What summit coverage adds on N2P
TechTimes, writing Sept. 23 from the same Maui summit, says both Gen 6 chips use TSMC’s N2P 2nm node with gate-all-around nanosheet transistors. It cites Qualcomm figures of about 37% better CPU power efficiency versus Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Peak Oryon Prime clocks are listed at 5.0 GHz on both SKUs, with six Performance cores at up to 4.0 GHz.
That report also names nine OEM partners committed to ship on the new platforms: HONOR, iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, OPPO, Redmi, RedMagic, Vivo, and Xiaomi. HONOR’s Magic 9 Pro Max, on the Extreme chipset, was scheduled to launch in China on Sept. 28. TechTimes does not publish a Snapdragon ASP, and The Elec does not either.
Numbers neither outlet printed
Neither The Elec nor the TechTimes summit write-up lists how many Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 wafers Qualcomm has booked at TSMC for 2026–2027. They do not give Samsung Foundry’s 2nm yield on phone APs. They do not say whether Apple’s 2nm iPhone silicon changes Qualcomm’s TSMC allocation.
Phone makers that buy both memory and application processors still sit under two tight markets at once. DRAM capacity keeps shifting toward HBM, as our Samsung DRAM wafers and HBM squeeze note tracked. On the logic side, Patrick’s Sept. 22 line keeps Gen 6 on TSMC for now, with Samsung as a stated option rather than a signed second source.
Photo: Apple
Source: The Elec, Sept. 22, 2026 (Jeong Il Joo), Snapdragon Summit remarks by Chris Patrick; TechTimes, Sept. 23, 2026 (Henry Baker), summit specs and OEM list
