Qualcomm reveals 2 new smartphone chips focusing on agentic AI

Qualcomm reveals 2 new smartphone chips focusing on agentic AI

Daniel Howley · Technology Editor

Tue, September 22, 2026 at 11:07 PM GMT+3 2 min read

• QCOM -0.52%

Qualcomm (QCOM) launched its latest smartphone chips during its annual Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Hawaii, on Tuesday.

The company said its Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 are designed with agentic AI in mind.

Qualcomm sees running AI agents and models on their devices as a cheaper alternative to users paying to run applications via the cloud.

"Today marks a milestone as we introduce not one, but two new flagship mobile platforms, delivering agentic AI experiences that are immediate, personal, and adaptive," Chris Patrick, senior vice president and GM of mobile handsets at Qualcomm, said in a statement.

"As the agentic AI age evolves, our multi-flagship strategy allows us to push the boundaries of what's possible for mobile while bringing our latest AI innovations to a broader range of premium devices," he added.

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Qualcomm's smartphone chips are found inside premium Android-powered devices worldwide, including Xiaomi, Motorola (MSI), ZTE, and others.

The mobile chip giant is in the midst of a massive reinvention as it seeks to reduce its reliance on the smartphone market and dive into growth drivers like the AI data center space.

During its investor day in June, Qualcomm provided greater insights into how it plans to do that, revealing a line of data center components and servers and announcing it is nearly doubling its fiscal 2029 non-handset revenue projections to $40 billion.

The company initially began its push to reduce its dependence on smartphone revenue by turning toward edge devices — products including laptops, smart glasses, and self-driving vehicle technologies.

Still, smartphone-related sales continue to drive Qualcomm's revenue. In its July earnings report, the company's CDMA Technologies segment revenue, which includes smartphone, internet of things, and automotive sales, brought in $8.5 billion of Qualcomm's $9.9 billion in total sales for the quarter.

Handset sales in particular topped $5.1 billion. Automotive-related sales hit $1.5 billion.

Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on X at @DanielHowley.

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