Qualcomm Unveils AI Chips

Qualcomm announced two new flagship Android smartphone chips, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. The company said they can support AI agents that work in the background, answer across apps, and personalize suggestions using local sensing and memory. The launch advances Qualcomm’s push to make premium phones on-device AI hubs, running models locally instead of in the cloud. It comes as rising memory costs pressure smartphones, with Counterpoint Research expecting global shipments to shrink 14% in 2026. Both chips use TSMC’s 2-nanometer process, Qualcomm’s first 2nm smartphone silicon. Motorola and Xiaomi announced phones using the chips, with Motorola’s Signature 27 shipping later this year.