Qualcomm recently unveiled its new strategy, positioning the company as an "ecosystem player" rather than just a hardware manufacturer. The core of this transformation is the integration of powerful, on-device AI capabilities across a user's entire array of gadgets.
At the Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm introduced more powerful Snapdragon processors for smartphones and laptops, which feature its in-house Oryon CPU design. The new PC processors, including the Snapdragon X Elite 2 and Elite 2 Extreme, are designed to aggressively compete in the AI PC space against rivals like Intel, AMD, and Apple. The new chips boast up to 18 cores and a powerful Neural Processing Unit (NPU) with 80 TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second) of on-device AI processing performance, which Qualcomm claims can deliver "multi-day" battery life and faster CPU performance at similar power levels compared to the competition.
CEO Cristiano Amon is driving this narrative, proclaiming that "AI is the new UI" (User Interface). The future is envisioned as a seamless experience where AI agents, which can respond to prompts and complete complex tasks, operate as the central intelligence connecting a user's phone, earbuds, smart glasses, and other devices. Crucially, these chips are engineered to handle certain AI tasks locally, without requiring an internet connection, improving both speed and privacy. Major manufacturers like Samsung, Xiaomi, and OnePlus are expected to adopt these new chips soon.