In a new report citing “industry sources,” a new partnership in the mobile space could raise some eyebrows. While Samsung has been a manufacturing partner of Apple’s for quite some time, the thought of bringing Qualcomm into the partnership fold may seem outright outlandish. And yet, that seems to be the case.

According to a report published by the Yonhap News Agency, Qualcomm has lended part of its mobile processor production to Samsung, which means the latter company will begin manufacturing processors for the former soon. Indeed, the deal has apparently already had a positive effect on outlooks geared specifically towards the division, especially when compared to Samsung’s smartphone business.

For Samsung, it’s quite the win, as it means that not only is Apple part of the production process, now another major player in the smartphone industry has been added to the mix. The report points out that Qualcomm held quite the stranglehold on the mobile application processors market in 2013, holding a whopping 52.4 percent of the market. Samsung, on the other hand, amassed only 8 percent. However, Qualcomm does not have manufacturing facilities of its own.

From the report:

“Although Samsung currently dominates the semiconductor market, including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips and NAND flash sectors, its weak performance in the mobile application processors has been cited as one of the major drags on the company’s earnings.“

It’s certainly an interesting move, and it will be interesting to see if Samsung, at some point down the road, begins any type of marketing that might put Qualcomm in the crosshairs despite the pair of company’s partnership. Samsung is well known for including the competitor’s products in their own advertisements, even when the company may have played a role in bringing those products to market. For Samsung, though, gaining ground with mobile application processors makes perfect sense, so this partnership could turn quite lucrative down the road.