Samsung Exynos 2600: The Company’s First 2nm GAA Chipset Promises Significant NPU Performance Improvements Over Previous-Generation SoC

During the Q2 2025 earnings call, Samsung unveiled plans to significantly increase mass production of its upcoming mobile system-on-chip (SoC), employing the innovative 2nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) technology in the latter half of 2025. Although the announcement hinted at this groundbreaking silicon, it lacked specific details. However, an analyst during a question-and-answer session clarified that the inaugural chipset built on Samsung’s next-gen lithography would be the Exynos 2600. This development is expected to bring notable competition to the flagship smartphone market. While precise performance metrics remain undisclosed, Samsung has indicated that the Exynos 2600 will enhance neural processing unit (NPU) capabilities compared to its predecessor.

Insights on Exynos 2600’s Performance and Optimization Strategies

According to reports, Samsung initiated the prototype mass production phase for the Exynos 2600 in June 2025. Industry estimates around that time suggested that yield rates for the 2nm GAA process were hovering around 30%.While this figure falls short of the commercially viable threshold, it reflects substantial improvement over the challenges encountered with Samsung’s previous 3nm GAA technology. The company aims to achieve approximately 70% yields by year-end, a goal that could attract contracts from major industry players like Qualcomm.

Highlighting Samsung’s strategic direction, the company has secured a substantial $16.5 billion contract with Tesla for the mass production of chips using the 2nm GAA technology. During the Q&A, analyst Bryan Ma confirmed that the Exynos 2600 would indeed be Samsung’s first chipset fabricated using this state-of-the-art process. Yet, intriguingly, there was no mention of expected compute or GPU performance. Instead, Samsung emphasized that the SoC will significantly outperform its predecessor, the Exynos 2500, especially in terms of NPU performance, thus enhancing on-device AI capabilities.

Samsung Q&A: “Exynos 2600 will be the first flagship chipset fabricated on the latest 2nm GAA process [via Samsung Foundry]…2600 offers a significant improvement in NPU performance versus the prior version with enhanced support for on-device AI functionality”

— Bryan Ma (@bryanbma) July 31, 2025

Evidently, the Exynos 2600 has already been recorded on Geekbench 6, showcasing a 10-core CPU cluster. This suggests that Samsung is actively testing the chipset in preparation for its anticipated release. However, the absence of information regarding raw performance metrics compared to competitors suggests that the Exynos 2600 may still be undergoing optimization. Reports indicate that Samsung is employing innovative technologies such as ‘Heat Pass Block’ (HPB) to enhance heat dissipation, along with ‘Fan-out Wafer Level Packaging’ (FOWLP) to improve heat resistance and boost multi-core performance. With significant stakes involved, Samsung must ensure that every aspect of this chipset meets expectations to avoid another potential setback.

For more information, visit: Bryan Ma’s Twitter

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