Samsung has been trying to grow its System LSI division (Samsung’s fabless unit) and compete with Qualcomm for several years. Unfortunately, the division is struggling. According to a report by Hankyung, the Korean firm started an audit of its LSI Division in January 2025, and this process is still ongoing.
Why Samsung is auditing its LSI division
The audit is being run by the Management Diagnosis Office — a new team created at the end of November 2024. Samsung wants to find out why this division is not performing well. They have spent a lot of money on it, and even after so many investments, the division’s performance has been unsatisfactory. Once the team is done with the audit of the System LSI division, they will move to the Foundry division. This division makes chips for other companies. Samsung’s custom AI chip design business may also undergo scrutiny.
Six years ago, Samsung announced that it would spend around 171 trillion won by 2030 to become a leader in global chips. As of now, they are losing to competitors like Qualcomm and TSMC. Samsung’s own Galaxy S25 series does not use the Exynos 2500 due to its low yield rate and other reasons. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset powers the new flagship. This collaboration indirectly hurts Samsung.
Samsung may move the Exynos team in-house
The management diagnosis office is closely reviewing the SoC (System on Chip) team responsible for the Exynos AP. They are reportedly in talks to change their identity to an in-house team that designs application processors just for their own smartphones. Apple’s chips follow a similar pattern.
As a result, the SoC team may move from the System LSI Division to Samsung’s MX Division. They might make other major changes depending on the findings of this audit. The end goal is to make the System LSI Division strong and finally give Samsung a competitive advantage in the world of chips.
