Qualcomm
1 item across 1 edition. First seen Wed 23 Sep, last seen Wed 23 Sep.
- CNBC reports Qualcomm unveiled two versions of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, one with "extreme" branding, built on TSMC's 2-nanometer process and destined for premium phones from Motorola, Xiaomi and ZTE. Qualcomm says the chips are tuned for on-device AI and will compete with Apple's A20 Pro.
- CNBC, citing Counterpoint Research, reports the overall smartphone market is expected to shrink 14% in units shipped in 2026 and potentially another 1% in 2027, driven by skyrocketing memory costs that have raised device prices — the same memory demand that AI data centre buildouts are competing for.
- CEO Cristiano Amon, speaking at the launch on 22 September: "We're going into this transition from what is a very phone-centric model to now an agentic-centric model for new experiences." Qualcomm is positioning its high-end phones as an "AI hub" that can produce tokens without the cloud.
- Qualcomm's claim that the Extreme version can run a 30-billion-parameter model locally is the company's own and has not been independently tested. The Counterpoint forecast is a projection, not a measured outcome.