Samsung‘s chip development for its upcoming Galaxy S25 series is facing challenges, as new industry reports reveal that South Korea’s 52-hour workweek cap is limiting the company’s ability to meet key deadlines. According to a recent report, Samsung has encountered production setbacks in the development of the Exynos 2500.
Originally, Samsung planned to introduce its next-generation Exynos 2500 processor globally. However, the tech giant has opted to power the Galaxy S25 Ultra with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite worldwide, indicating that Exynos development hasn’t met the required performance standards for its 2025 flagship devices.
The 52-hour workweek regulation, which includes a cap of 12 hours of overtime, has been pointed to by Samsung as a core constraint on its Exynos development team. With these limitations, Samsung engineers are reportedly forced to halt work even during critical development phases, resulting in unfinished tasks.
This cap has led some employees to work unpaid overtime to stay on top of demanding schedules, according to sources in The Chosun Daily. The publication also reported that Samsung’s management has discussed these restrictions with lawmakers in South Korea to seek a possible exemption, as they consider the effect on competitiveness.
But this workweek isn’t exclusive to South Korea!
Interestingly, similar workweek laws also exist in other tech manufacturing hubs. Taiwan’s TSMC, a leading Samsung competitor, adheres to a workweek limit of 48 hours (40 regular hours plus 36 hours of overtime monthly).
Critics also note that other South Korean companies, such as SK Hynix, remain competitive under similar restrictions, though Samsung’s scope extends beyond memory chips to custom semiconductor designs and client-specific foundry work.
In comparison, Companies like Qualcomm and Apple, based in the United States, face no legally mandated workweek caps. This could have allowed these companies to push for extended working hours when necessary, albeit with much larger development teams than Samsung’s.
What does it mean for the S25 series?
Unlike the Galaxy S25 Ultra, sources suggest that the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25+ models might adopt the Exynos 2500 or the Dimensity 9400 chip. This is because the cost of the Snapdragon 8 Elite is nearly $200, reportedly much higher than Samsung’s budget for the base and Plus models. That said, it would be interesting to see how the other two models perform as compared to the Ultra model.
(Source)
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