Samsung Electronics is leveraging Qualcomm's next-generation mobile platform to secure a foothold in the emerging artificial intelligence (AI) smartphone memory market. The company has successfully validated its LPDDR6 memory, moving beyond development to testing within the application processor (AP), the brain of smartphones. At the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit 2026, held during the Chuseok holiday, numerous global smartphone manufacturers adopting the next-gen chip were unveiled, clarifying the potential customer base Samsung can access through Qualcomm.
On September 23, Samsung announced it became the first in the industry to validate its 16GB LPDDR6 memory at speeds of up to 10.7Gbps with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme 6th generation. To integrate the new memory into smartphones, it is essential to ensure stable data transmission between the AP and memory. This validation marks a critical milestone toward actual supply.
Samsung's LPDDR6 can process up to 114GB of data per second, with power efficiency improved by up to 21% compared to LPDDR5X. For large language models and multimodal AI to operate directly within smartphones, both the AP's computational performance and the memory's data bandwidth are crucial. As AI agents operate continuously, power efficiency also significantly impacts battery life.
The implications of this validation extend beyond Samsung smartphones. Qualcomm unveiled both the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme 6th generation and the standard 6th generation at the summit. The company announced that next-gen flagship products from Honor, iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Redmi, RedMagic, Vivo, and Xiaomi will feature these platforms. With Samsung's LPDDR6 validated first on the Extreme platform, the company has laid the groundwork to expand supply to global Android smartphone manufacturers. However, details regarding which manufacturers will adopt Samsung's LPDDR6 and the scale of supply remain undisclosed.
The collaboration between Qualcomm and Samsung is also broadening. Ziad Asgar, Qualcomm's Senior Vice President, highlighted Samsung as a key partner in expanding the personal AI ecosystem during the Snapdragon Summit. He noted that their collaboration is extending from smartphones to smartwatches and augmented reality (XR) and AI glasses. The intersection of mobile APs and memory is evolving into a broader partnership encompassing AI devices.
China presents a variable in this landscape. Chinese DRAM manufacturer CXMT announced on September 7 that it has begun mass production of its LPDDR6, which has been applied to the Xiaomi 18 Fold. If true, this would mark the first instance of LPDDR6 being integrated into a commercial smartphone ahead of Samsung. CXMT also announced on September 20 the mass production of its new 'G5' process 24Gb LPDDR5X, claiming a minimum 50% increase in the number of chips produced per wafer compared to previous processes. This situation creates a dynamic where Samsung and SK Hynix must accelerate their technological transitions while also countering the price competitiveness of Chinese firms.
The market transition is expected to gain momentum starting next year. Omdia forecasts that LPDDR6 will account for 39% of total LPDDR shipments by 2030, up from 3% in 2027. In the first quarter of this year, Samsung's market share in mobile DRAM was 43% based on revenue. To maintain its position as the market leader in the next-generation standard, it is crucial for Samsung to expedite the adoption and mass production timelines of its technology by smartphone manufacturers.
An industry insider stated, "LPDDR6 represents not just a generational speed upgrade but a memory competition intertwined with the expansion of on-device AI. Completing validation on the Qualcomm platform means securing a favorable position in the supply competition among global smartphone manufacturers."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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