Samsung's Multi-Provider AI: Moving Galaxy AI Beyond Gemini

Samsung is fundamentally evolving its Galaxy AI platform, moving beyond its foundational partnership with Google’s Gemini to architect a more diversified and strategically independent AI ecosystem. In a significant confirmation, Samsung’s mobile chief, TM Roh, has detailed a “multi-provider” approach that complements its existing “hybrid AI” framework. This strategy involves actively engaging with multiple partners, continuing in-house development of its Samsung Gauss large language model (LLM), and tailoring AI services for regional markets, as seen with its Baidu partnership in China. This development represents a calculated move to reduce dependency, optimize specific AI tasks with best-in-class models, and differentiate its offerings in a market where on-device intelligence is the new competitive frontier. The Samsung AI ecosystem latest developments signal a clear intent to orchestrate a complex, multi-faceted AI future rather than rely on a single source.

Key Points

• Confirmed Hybrid Architecture: Samsung’s current Galaxy AI platform operates on a hybrid model, using Google’s Gemini Nano on-device for low-latency tasks like Live Translate and Gemini Pro via the cloud for complex operations like the Magic Editor’s generative fill.

• Strategic Diversification: The company has confirmed a Samsung multi-provider AI strategy to enhance negotiation leverage, enable task-specific optimization, and create unique features. This includes the development of its proprietary Samsung Gauss family of models (Language, Code, and Image).

• Documented Regional Customization: Samsung’s strategy is already deployed in China, where the Galaxy S24 series integrates Baidu’s cloud-based Ernie Bot for generative AI features, demonstrating a flexible, market-specific approach.

• Validated Market Adoption: By March 2024, over 60% of Galaxy S24 Ultra users in Europe were actively using Galaxy AI features, validating the investment as Samsung aims to deploy its AI on over 100 million devices by the end of the year.

Dual-Engine Intelligence: Samsung’s Hybrid Foundation

The initial launch of Galaxy AI on the S24 series established a “hybrid AI” framework that has become a cornerstone of the on-device AI movement. This architecture intelligently allocates AI workloads between the smartphone itself and powerful cloud servers to balance performance, privacy, and capability.

Technically, this is a division of labor between two distinct Google models. For tasks demanding speed, offline access, and heightened privacy, Galaxy AI utilizes Google Gemini Nano, an efficient model running directly on the device’s NPU. This powers real-time functions like Live Translate and text organization in Samsung Notes, ensuring sensitive data remains local. For more computationally intensive operations, the system offloads work to Google Gemini Pro in the cloud. This enables sophisticated features like the “Circle to Search” function and the generative fill in the Magic Editor, which require processing power beyond current mobile hardware limitations.

As Won-joon Choi, EVP and Head of R& D at Samsung Mobile, stated in a Samsung Newsroom editorial, this hybrid approach was chosen as “the most practical and reliable solution to meet user needs.” This foundation provides the technical blueprint for a more complex, multi-layered system.

Breaking AI’s Golden Handcuffs

While the Google partnership proved successful, Samsung’s long-term vision involves building a more resilient and versatile AI ecosystem, mitigating the strategic risks of relying on a single provider. This shift, a core component of the Samsung multi-provider AI strategy, is driven by a need for greater control, deeper innovation, and adaptation to a fragmented global market.

A diversified portfolio gives Samsung more leverage in negotiations and allows it to create unique features by mixing and matching models. For example, it can use a partner’s model for best-in-class translation while integrating its in-house Samsung Gauss model for device-specific optimizations. TM Roh articulated this vision, stating, “We are working with various partners for our on-device and cloud-based AI… We have our own [large language model] as well. So we can put the optimisation in there and we can also collaborate with our partners,” as quoted in Mobile World Live. This open stance on collaboration fuels analysis around future integrations, making a potential Samsung Perplexity AI integration or other specialized partnerships, including those hinted at in rumored Samsung OpenAI partnership talks, a logical extension of this stated strategy.

This multi-provider model is already in action. In China, where Google services are blocked, Samsung partnered with Baidu to power generative AI features with its Ernie Bot, as confirmed by CNBC. This is not just a workaround; it’s a strategic enhancement, deploying an AI tailored to the nuances of the local language and culture.

Conducting an AI Orchestra: Integration Complexities

Samsung’s strategy is unfolding as the entire industry pivots to on-device AI. Counterpoint Research forecasts that “GenAI smartphones” will grow from 11% of the market in 2024 to 43% by 2027. This competitive pressure, particularly from Apple, makes Samsung’s move a necessity, but it is not without significant hurdles.

Apple’s employs a similar conceptual model, prioritizing on-device processing and partnering with OpenAI for more complex queries. This validates the hybrid, multi-provider approach but also highlights Samsung’s primary challenge: user experience. Integrating models from Google, Baidu, and its own Samsung Gauss requires immense engineering effort to ensure a seamless, consistent user interface. As noted by Ben Wood of CCS Insight, device makers are keen to avoid being “a dumb pipe for others’ AI services,” a sentiment that perfectly captures Samsung’s motivation to maintain control over its user relationships.

The technical complexity of optimizing multiple, distinct LLMs on both Exynos and Snapdragon chipsets is substantial. Furthermore, branding a collection of partnered AIs is inherently more complex than Apple’s singular “Apple Intelligence” banner. Despite these challenges, Samsung’s rapid rollout, with plans to bring Galaxy AI beyond Google Gemini to over 100 million devices, demonstrates its commitment to leading in this new era.

From Single Partner to Symphony

Samsung’s strategic pivot to take Galaxy AI beyond Google Gemini and towards a multi-provider AI ecosystem is a defining move in the smartphone wars. It is a direct response to the technical limitations and strategic risks of a monolithic approach, embracing complexity to gain flexibility, regional relevance, and competitive differentiation. This evolution from a hybrid-AI model to a multi-provider orchestra is backed by a market projected to reach nearly $30 billion by 2033, according to Precedence Research. The path is fraught with integration and branding challenges, but it positions Samsung to control its own destiny. The central question now is: can Samsung’s engineers conduct this complex symphony of systems into a harmonious user experience?