Samsung To Double AI Mobile Devices To 800 Million Units This Year

Seoul: Samsung plans to double the number of mobile devices with “Galaxy AI” features, largely powered by Google’s Gemini, this year, giving the US firm an advantage over rivals as the global race in artificial intelligence heats up, Samsung’s co-CEO said.

The South Korean company, which introduced Gemini-supported artificial intelligence features to approximately 400 million mobile products, including smartphones and tablets, last year, plans to increase this figure to 800 million in 2026.

“We will apply AI to all products, all functions and all services as soon as possible,” TM Roh told Reuters in his first interview since becoming co-CEO of Samsung Electronics in November.

The plan from the world’s biggest backer of Google’s Android mobile platform will provide a major boost to its developer, Google, as it races with OpenAI and others to attract more consumer users to its artificial intelligence models.

Samsung aims to regain its lost crown in the smartphone market from Apple and fend off competition from Chinese rivals not only in mobile phones but also in televisions and home appliances controlled by Roh.

While Apple was pegged as last year’s top smartphone maker, it will offer integrated AI services across its consumer products to expand its lead over Apple in such features, according to market researcher Counterpoint.

Artificial Intelligence Race

Google released the latest version of Gemini in November, highlighting Gemini 3’s leadership in many popular industry metrics of AI model performance.

In response to Gemini 3, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly issued an internal “code red” by pausing non-core projects and directing teams to accelerate development. ChatGPT maker released the GPT-5.2 AI model a few weeks later.

Roh expects AI adoption to accelerate as awareness surveys of Samsung’s Galaxy AI brand rise from about 30% to 80% in just one year.

“Although artificial intelligence technology seems a bit dubious at the moment, within six months to a year these technologies will become more widespread,” he said.

While search is the most used AI feature on phones, consumers also frequently use translation and summary features, as well as a number of generative AI editing and productivity tools for images and others, he said.

Galaxy AI is Samsung’s term for its suite of AI features for different tasks, including those powered by both Google’s Gemini model and Samsung’s own Bixby.

Samsung shares gained 7.5% on Monday as the company reported a fourth-quarter profit increase later this week, fueled by a global chip shortage.

“Not immune” to memory chip failure

The worldwide shortage of memory chips is a boon for Samsung’s core semiconductor business, but it’s weighing on margins in its smartphone business, its second-largest source of revenue.

“As this is an unprecedented situation, no company is immune from its impact,” Roh said, adding that the crisis has affected not only mobile phones but also other consumer electronics, from TVs to home appliances.

It did not rule out increasing product prices, saying some impact of the increase in memory chip prices was “inevitable”, but Samsung, the world’s No. 1 TV maker, is working on long-term strategies with its partners to minimize the impact.

Market researchers such as IDC and Counterpoint predict that the global smartphone market will shrink next year as a memory chip shortage threatens to drive up phone prices.

Roh said that the foldable phone market, which Samsung pioneered in 2019, is growing slower than expected.

He attributed this to engineering complexities and a lack of applications suitable for hardware design, but expected the segment to become mainstream within the next two or three years.

He said that a “very high” proportion of foldable phone users prefer the same segment for their next purchase, but did not provide details.

According to Counterpoint, Samsung controlled almost two-thirds of the foldable smartphone market in the third quarter of 2025.

However, it faces competition from Chinese companies such as Huawei as well as Apple, which is expected to launch its first foldable phone this year.