https://www.reuters.com/world/china/samsung-double-mobile-devices-powered-by-googles-gemini-800-mln-units-this-year-2026-01-05/
Exclusive: Samsung to double AI mobile devices to 800 million this year
Seoul, January 5 (Reuters) — Samsung Electronics plans to double the number of mobile devices equipped with its ‘Galaxy AI’ feature powered by Google's Gemini this year, a co-CEO revealed. This move is expected to give an advantage to US company Google amid intensifying global competition for artificial intelligence (AI).
Samsung Electronics applied Gemini-based AI features to approximately 400 million mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, last year. The company plans to expand this to 800 million by 2026.
In his first interview with Reuters since taking office as co-CEO in November last year, TM Roh, president of Samsung Electronics, said “We will apply AI to all products, all functions, and all services as quickly as possible”.
Samsung's plan, which actively supports Google's Android mobile platform, is expected to significantly boost Google, which is competing with OpenAI and others for AI model users.
Samsung aims to regain its leading position in the smartphone market from Apple while maintaining its edge over Chinese competitors. The competition extends beyond mobile phones to include TVs and home appliances, all of which are overseen by President Roh.
By providing integrated AI services across its consumer products, Samsung plans to further widen the gap with Apple in related functions. However, market research firm Counterpoint Research forecasts that Apple will become the top smartphone vendor by shipment volume last year.
AI Competition
Alphabet, Google's parent company, unveiled the latest version of Gemini in November last year and emphasized that Gemini 3 leads in several key industry standard benchmarks for AI model performance.
In response, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly declared an internal "Code Red," halting non-core projects and reallocating development personnel to accelerate its efforts. Subsequently, ChatGPT developer OpenAI released the GPT-5.2 AI model a few weeks later.
President Roh cited Samsung's research showing that awareness of the Galaxy AI brand surged from about 30% to 80% in just one year, and predicted that the pace of AI adoption would accelerate further.
“While AI technology may seem somewhat questionable at present, it will become much more commonplace within six months to a year.”
He explained that the most frequently used AI function on mobile phones is search, but consumers also frequently use various generative AI editing and productivity tools for images and other purposes, as well as translation and summarization features.
Galaxy AI is the name used by Samsung Electronics. It refers to a bundle of AI functions that utilize both Google's Gemini model and Samsung's own Bixby, tailored for specific tasks.
Samsung Electronics shares rose 7.5% on Monday, driven by expectations that the company will report a surge in fourth-quarter earnings (profit increase) later this week due to the impact of the global semiconductor shortage.
Memory Chip Shortage: "No Exceptions"
The global memory chip shortage is a boon for Samsung's core semiconductor business, but it puts pressure on the profitability of its second-largest revenue source, smartphones.
President Roh said “This situation is unprecedented, so no company can be free from its impact”, adding that the crisis is affecting not only mobile phones but also other consumer electronics such as TVs and home appliances.
He said the impact of the surge in memory semiconductor prices is “inevitable” and did not rule out the possibility of a product price increase, but Samsung, the world's No. 1 TV manufacturer, said it was working on a long-term strategy with partners to minimize the impact.
Market research firms such as IDC and Counterpoint Research are predicting that the global smartphone market will shrink next year as the possibility of rising mobile phone prices increases due to a shortage of memory semiconductors.
President Roh said that Samsung, which first introduced the foldable phone market in 2019, revealed that the growth rate was slower than initially expected.
He cited high technological difficulty and a lack of applications suitable for hardware design as reasons, but predicted that the market would become popular within 2 to 3 years.
He said that a "very high" percentage of foldable phone users are choosing the same form factor for their next purchase, but did not disclose specific figures.
According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung will occupy about two-thirds of the global foldable smartphone market as of the third quarter of 2025.
However, it is facing competition from Chinese companies such as Huawei and Apple, which is expected to launch its first foldable phone this year.
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