Samsung Exynos gains market share even as global SoC shipments decline

TL;DR

Global smartphone SoC shipments fell in early 2026 as higher memory costs pushed phone prices up and demand down.

Samsung’s Exynos share rose to 8% in H1 2026 from 5% a year earlier, despite the broader market decline.

Strong Galaxy S26 sales and its mix of Snapdragon and Exynos chips likely helped Samsung gain share.

Rising memory chip costs have pushed smartphone prices higher, leading to weaker demand. As a result, phone sales declined, causing overall mobile chipset shipments to fall. Despite that, Samsung's Exynos SoCs managed to increase their market share year-over-year.

Counterpoint Research has published an analysis of smartphone chipset shipments for the first half of 2026. According to the report, Samsung's Exynos chipsets accounted for an 8% market share, up from 5% in the first half of 2025, as you can see in the image below.

Counterpoint Research

Report by Counterpoint Research on global smartphone chipset shipments in H1 2026 – Source: Counterpoint Research

Samsung was one of only three chipset vendors to increase its market share year-over-year despite the overall decline in SoC shipments. The other two were Apple and Unisoc.

In the first half of 2026, Samsung's only major smartphone launch was the Galaxy S26 series. Unlike its predecessor, the Galaxy S25 lineup, which exclusively used Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets, the Galaxy S26 series featured both Qualcomm Snapdragon and Samsung Exynos processors. Combined with the strong sales of the Galaxy S26 lineup, this likely contributed to Exynos gaining market share.

Abid Iqbal Shaik - Writer

First Samsung device: Galaxy S II

I’m a computer science engineer living in Hyderabad, India, who has a keen interest in automobiles and consumer electronics. My journalism career kicked off in 2017 with MySmartPrice where I wrote news, features, buying guides, and explanatory articles about technology among other things, and reviewed many products, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, PC components, smartwatches, audio devices, wearables, and smart home products. Since then, I have worked for 91Mobiles, Apple, and Onsitego, before finally landing on SamMobile.

Phone Exynos