HAWAII — The brains behind next year’s highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S27 and Z Fold 9 series are officially arriving this fall.

Semiconductor giant Qualcomm has announced its annual Snapdragon Summit, scheduled for September 22–24 in Hawaii. The tech world anticipates the unveiling of the company’s next-generation 2nm mobile processors, manufactured by TSMC: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and its beefed-up sibling, the 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro.

Given their long-standing partnership, Samsung is widely expected to equip its 2027 flagship lineup with the premium "Pro" tier silicon. This means the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro will likely power the Galaxy S27, S27+, S27 Pro, and S27 Ultra, as well as the upcoming Z Fold 9 and Z Fold 9 Ultra foldables. However, international markets might see the standard S27 and S27+ ship with Samsung's in-house 2nm Exynos 2700 chip, which features a new parallel cooling structure (SBS).

Under the hood, the base Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 boasts an octa-core CPU maxing out at 4.4GHz, an Adreno 845 GPU, and support for LPDDR5X RAM. Meanwhile, the "Pro" variant—tailored for Ultra-tier devices and power-hungry foldables—pushes the limits with clock speeds reaching a blistering 5.0GHz, alongside an Adreno 850 GPU and next-gen LPDDR6 RAM compatibility.

Beyond the ultra-premium silicon, industry insiders suggest Qualcomm will also debut two 3nm processors aimed at the upper-mid-range market, rounding out its year-end portfolio to capture a broader audience.