Samsung MX might take over Exynos business from System LSI and design its own chips

Such drastic measures would allow the Mobile eXperience arm to design its own Exynos chips. Those in-house chips would then likely be manufactured by Samsung's Foundry business, as they are today.

This is similar to how Apple's structure is defined. The same company from Cupertino designs the iPhone and iPad, as well as the A and M chips.

However, the recent report says there is significant internal disagreement at Samsung regarding System LSI losing the Exynos business to MX. So, whether or not this transfer of ownership will come to pass is to be determined.

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Samsung's Exynos chips have been in hot water for the past few years. Despite Samsung's efforts to develop a competitive in-house platform, Exynos and System LSI have continued to underperform and disappoint the MX division and Galaxy fans alike.

Samsung is a conglomerate made up of many divisions that can refer to each other as “clients.” The perfect example is how Samsung LSI refers to Samsung MX as a client for Exynos chips. At the same time, System LSI can sell (and has sold) Exynos chips to other smartphone brands.

In the past, MX and LSI have tried to align their goals and create a more powerful Exynos platform specifically for Galaxy devices. There were reports of a “Dream Team” in 2022 that would bridge the gap between the MX and LSI divisions. Samsung later stated that “no specific decisions have been made” regarding one such team.

Needless to say, Samsung MX and System LSI continued to work more or less as they did in the past, following a client-supplier structure. That will change if the Exynos business gets transferred to MX.

Even so, the MX division would then have to overcome other difficulties. Samsung Foundry — the arm responsible for chip manufacturing — also underperformed in recent years and is being audited alongside System LSI. Even if the MX division designs the perfect Exynos chip for Galaxy, it could run into manufacturing issues caused by Foundry.