Samsung Electronics spent about 14 trillion won last year to purchase application processors (APs), the brains of smartphones.
According to the 2025 business report that Samsung Electronics disclosed on the 10th, last year's mobile application processor (AP) purchase expense for Samsung Electronics was 13.8272 trillion won, up 26.5% from the previous year's 10.9326 trillion won. The share in the overall materials and supplies expense for the Device eXperience (DX) institutional sector rose to 18.5% from 16.1% over the same period.
Samsung Electronics used Qualcomm's mobile AP "Snapdragon 8 Elite" in last year's Galaxy S25 series and Galaxy Z Fold 7. Only the Galaxy Z Flip 7 used the in-house chip Exynos 2500.
APs account for about 30% of smartphone manufacturing costs. With chip prices, including memory, rising worldwide recently, the upward price trend is reported to be continuing.
Samsung Electronics' mobile AP purchase expense has been gradually increasing: ▲ 2021, 621.16 billion won ▲ 2022, 931.38 billion won ▲ 2023, 1.1732 trillion won ▲ 2024, 1.09326 trillion won ▲ 2025, 1.38272 trillion won.
Samsung Electronics supplied "Exynos 2600" for the Galaxy S26 series launched this year in all models except the Ultra model. For the next-generation flagship Galaxy S27 series, the share of Exynos installations is expected to increase, improving profitability in the smartphone business.