Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon on AI devices, smart glasses and the future of smartphones - CNBC

In an interview with CNBC, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon delves into the future of AI devices, smart glasses, and smartphones. He emphasizes that as AI technology evolves, devices will expand beyond tra... Read original →

Qualcomm’s AI-device pivot isn’t just a product shift—it’s a strategic re-engineering of the semiconductor value chain. Integrating AI and 5G into edge chips forces upstream upgrades in sensors, optics, and LPDDR memory while accelerating OS-level adoption of on-device AI. Geopolitically, tighter U.S. export controls on advanced fab tools raise supply-chain redundancy costs, especially given Qualcomm’s heavy reliance on Taiwan, China-based TSMC for sub-4nm nodes. Competitively, NVIDIA’s entry into edge AI SoCs and MediaTek’s aggressive Dimensity push threaten Qualcomm’s mid-to-high-tier dominance. Smart glasses thus emerge as the critical battleground for next-gen human-computer interface control. Over the next 18 months, as RISC-V gains traction and Android standardizes on-device AI frameworks, Qualcomm’s licensing model faces structural erosion—only deep vertical integration of sensing, compute, and connectivity can preserve its pricing power in the mobile intelligence era.