Qualcomm and Samsung have been working together for roughly 30 years. Now, the two companies are betting that their next chapter stretches from flagship foldables to smartwatches to intelligent eyewear powered by Android XR.
At Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, 2026, the companies announced a significant expansion of their partnership.
What actually got announced
The centerpiece of the expansion is the Galaxy Z Fold8 series, which runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. The chip supports up to 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage, specs that matter less as bragging rights and more as infrastructure for on-device AI models that actually need room to breathe.
Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Watch9 will both run on the Snapdragon Wear Elite platform, marking Qualcomm’s deeper integration into Samsung’s smartwatch hardware.
