Samsung Explains Why Its Exynos Chips Are Falling Behind Competition

Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 phones face production challenges amid struggling chip development. South Korea’s new workweek limit is reportedly slowing down Samsung’s progress on the Exynos 2500 chip.

Originally, Samsung planned to use the Exynos 2500 in all Galaxy S25 models. But now, the company is switching to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. This suggests the Exynos 2500 isn’t powerful enough for Samsung’s top-tier phone.

Samsung says a new 52-hour workweek law is slowing its Exynos chip development. The law limits workers to 12 hours of overtime, which can interrupt important work, which is why Exynos chips are falling behind the competition, as per Samsung’s claims.

Some Samsung employees are working overtime without pay to meet deadlines. Samsung has even asked South Korean lawmakers to exempt the company from the law, fearing it could hurt its competitiveness.

Samsung isn’t alone in facing workweek limits. Taiwan’s TSMC, a major chipmaker, also has a 48-hour workweek.

Some argue that other South Korean companies, like SK Hynix, are doing well despite the same workweek rules. However, Samsung is a more complex company, making a wider range of chips including memory chips, custom semiconductor designs, and client-specific foundry work.

US companies like Qualcomm and Apple don’t have strict workweek limits. This could let them make their employees work longer hours when needed, even though they have bigger teams than Samsung.

The cheaper Galaxy S25 and S25+ phones might use the Exynos 2500 or Dimensity 9400 chips. This is because the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip is too expensive for these models.