Qualcomm Unveils New Chips to Power AI Agent Smartphones

Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer Cristiano Amon announced a shift from app-based mobile software to AI agent platforms during the opening keynote of the Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Hawaii. Amon told attendees that smartphones are transitioning into agent-centric devices designed to understand user intent, context, and manage tasks independently. He stated that the era of opening individual apps and issuing manual commands is beginning to end, with AI agents handling tasks on behalf of the user. Amon emphasized that smartphones will remain relevant because they are personal, unique to the user, and constantly carried, though the user experience will rely heavily on trust, security, privacy, and control. Simultaneously, Qualcomm unveiled its new Android mobile chips designed for on-device artificial intelligence to compete with Apple. Branded under the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 name, the processors are built using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's two-nanometer manufacturing process. The chips will power flagship smartphones from brands such as Motorola, Xiaomi, and Oppo. Qualcomm is releasing two versions, including one with an 'Extreme' label. Both variants feature an Oryon CPU equipped with two five-gigahertz Prime cores and six four-gigahertz Performance cores, alongside a graphics processing unit and a neural processing unit to process AI tasks without cloud reliance. The launch coincides with an expected decline in the broader smartphone market driven by global memory shortages, rising prices, inflation, and geopolitical tensions, prompting brands to focus on higher-margin flagship devices.