Samsung just dominated the CES 2026 Innovation Awards with a groundbreaking lineup spanning quantum-safe security chips, XR headsets, and AI-powered devices. The tech giant's S3SSE2A became the industry's first embedded security chip with hardware-based Post-Quantum Cryptography, while Galaxy XR earned recognition as the first Android XR device. With awards across nine categories from cybersecurity to sustainability, Samsung's showing signals its ambitious push into next-generation computing.
Samsung is making waves ahead of CES 2026, and the early recognition shows just how aggressively the company is pushing into next-generation tech. The Consumer Technology Association handed Samsung multiple Innovation Awards this week, with the standout being their S3SSE2A security chip - the first embedded chip to feature hardware-based Post-Quantum Cryptography.
This isn't just another incremental security upgrade. As quantum computers inch closer to breaking traditional encryption, Samsung's S3SSE2A offers protection that goes beyond software solutions by embedding quantum-resilient algorithms directly into silicon. The chip meets NIST standards and earned CC EAL6+ certification, the highest security assurance level in the industry. For IoT devices, mobile phones, and connected systems that need to stay secure for years, this hardware-level protection could be game-changing.
But Samsung's awards sweep goes far beyond security. Their Galaxy XR headset grabbed attention as the first device built on Android XR, a platform Samsung developed alongside Google and Qualcomm. The headset promises to blend physical and virtual worlds with multimodal AI at its core, letting users interact through sight, gestures, and voice in what Samsung calls "an infinite space."
The Galaxy Z Fold7 also earned recognition, continuing Samsung's foldable dominance with their thinnest, lightest design yet. Packed with a 200MP camera and powered by Galaxy AI, the device showcases how Samsung's betting on AI integration across their entire ecosystem. The company's been making Galaxy AI features free through 2025, a strategic move to get users hooked on their AI services.
On the component side, Samsung's showing real innovation in storage and memory. Their PM9E1 M.2 SSD became the world's first PCIe Gen5 drive in an ultra-compact 22x42mm form factor, delivering read speeds up to 14.8GB/s - perfect for space-constrained AI PCs. Meanwhile, their LPDDR6 memory pushes data rates to 10.7Gbps while improving energy efficiency by 21%.
