Samsung Drives 40% of Qualcomm Revenue

In 2022, Qualcomm and Samsung forged a new partnership, signing an agreement from 2023 onwards to expand the utilization of the Snapdragon platform across Samsung’s future high-end Galaxy product lines. This expansion extends beyond smartphones to encompass personal computers, tablets, and virtual reality devices. This year, the agreement’s duration has been extended, with Samsung progressively increasing its adoption of Qualcomm chips.

According to a report by Wccftech, recent survey statistics reveal that Samsung’s orders accounted for 40% of Qualcomm’s revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023, making it the latter’s largest single customer. This is more than double the share of Xiaomi, the second-largest at 17%, largely attributable to the Galaxy S23/24 series’ extensive use of Qualcomm’s high-end mobile platforms.

Although the Exynos 2400 represents a significant improvement over the Exynos 2200, it still lags behind the third-generation Snapdragon 8. The fourth-generation Snapdragon 8, set to debut later this year, is likely to maintain its lead and command a higher price. Recent reports suggest that Samsung is fully committed to developing a new Exynos chip, intended for use in all models of next year’s Galaxy S series, partially motivated by the high pricing of Qualcomm’s flagship SoC. Should Samsung successfully implement this plan, it could significantly reduce Qualcomm’s revenue.

In contrast, MediaTek’s situation appears more favorable than Qualcomm’s. Although Samsung and Xiaomi remain its largest customers, with shares of 25% and 17% respectively, the distribution is more balanced. MediaTek currently offers 15 SoC models for the mobile platform, and apart from Google, all Android smartphone manufacturers have procured these chips. Analysts predict that MediaTek’s share in the global smartphone chip market could increase to 35% by 2024.