"By adding Galaxy Watch to our areas of collaboration with Samsung Electronics, we have created an opportunity to advance personal AI to the next stage, and we have high expectations."
Chris Patrick, Qualcomm senior vice president and head of the mobile handset division, said this in an interview with ChosunBiz at the JW Marriott Seoul Hotel on the 20th. Patrick, the senior vice president, oversees Qualcomm's smartphone application processor (AP) business and more. An AP is the semiconductor that serves as the brain of a smartphone, and Qualcomm supplies its AP model, the Snapdragon series, to Samsung Electronics and others.
Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics have collaborated for more than 30 years, yet they have a special relationship as competitors in the AP market. Since 1996, when Samsung Electronics developed the world's first 2G (second-generation mobile communication) code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile phone, Qualcomm has supplied semiconductors to Samsung Electronics across diverse areas including mobile, home appliances, communications, and robotics. For Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm is both a customer for memory semiconductors and foundry (contract chip manufacturing), and a rival in the AP market.
Patrick, the senior vice president, said he would usher in the era of personal AI with Samsung Electronics. "To realize personalized AI, not only smartphones but also the role of wearables such as smart glasses and watches is important," he said. "Qualcomm has a portfolio that can integrate smart glasses and Mixed Reality (MR) devices, PCs, and mobile devices with AI, and we have shipped products together with Samsung Electronics. By adding watches to this, we have created an opportunity for different devices to build synergy."
At MWC 2026, the world's largest mobile exhibition held in Barcelona, Spain, on the 2nd (local time), Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm officially announced that the next-generation Galaxy Watch will be equipped with Qualcomm's latest wearable system on chip (SoC), the Snapdragon Wear Elite.
Patrick, the senior vice president, was guarded when speaking about collaboration with Samsung Electronics' foundry division. "Samsung Foundry is a close partner with a long-shared history," he said, "but I cannot speak specifically about cooperation on SF2 (2-nanometer process)."
Qualcomm had long entrusted mass production of APs to Samsung Electronics' foundry division, but due to low production yield, it has outsourced all AP production to TSMC starting with the 4-nanometer (nm; one-billionth of a meter) process. However, as the production yield of Samsung Electronics' foundry division's 2 nm process has moved onto a normal track, some have analyzed that collaboration with Qualcomm is becoming visible.
Meanwhile, Patrick, the senior vice president, expressed concern about rising memory semiconductor prices. "We expect memory price increases to have some impact on the business. It is a major challenge for us," he said. "Device prices will also rise in part as memory prices increase, and consumers are expected to respond in different ways. That said, our fundamental view is that smartphones have become essential goods."
He added that the company would respond to the market based on technology that maximizes memory semiconductor efficiency. "Qualcomm has technology that compresses the memory semiconductors needed to run AI models to maximize efficiency," he said, adding, "We have advanced our technology development over the years, and we expect to use related technologies more broadly going forward."
Patrick, the senior vice president, said that even as memory semiconductor prices rise and AP market competition intensifies, the company will accelerate innovation based on differentiated research and development (R&D) competitiveness. "The smartphone AP market is extremely large, with sales in the billions of units, so competition is inevitable," he said. "Competition with MediaTek and Exynos (Samsung Electronics' System LSI division) is always welcome. But we will compete with R&D capabilities that have long history and depth, including experts who have studied AI for more than 20 years."