Qualcomm has two new flagship chips on the market, and both are built around a single idea: running AI agents directly on your phone instead of sending your questions to the cloud. The company announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 at its Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Hawaii, on Tuesday.
The move is a direct answer to a problem users already know. Running AI in the cloud costs money, and Qualcomm wants devices to handle the work themselves. The company argues that running agents and models on the device is cheaper than paying to run applications via the cloud.
Chris Patrick, senior vice president and GM of mobile handsets at Qualcomm, made the case in a statement. “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,” he said.
“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.
The Two Chips
Both chips are designed with agentic AI in mind. Qualcomm’s smartphone chips are found inside premium Android-powered devices worldwide, including Xiaomi, Motorola (MSI), ZTE, and others.
The chips come as Qualcomm continues a major reinvention. The company 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.
Why Qualcomm Is Moving
The shift is not abstract. Qualcomm’s core business has always been about connecting devices, and the company is moving into new areas to keep growing. 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.
But smartphone sales still drive the company’s revenue. In its July earnings report, Qualcomm’s CDMA Technologies segment brought in $8.5 billion of its $9.9 billion in total sales for the quarter. That segment covers smartphones, internet of things, and automotive sales.
Handset sales in particular topped $5.1 billion. Automotive-related sales hit $1.5 billion.
That revenue mix shows why the move makes sense. Qualcomm is not abandoning phones; it is adding new ways to earn from them. The company’s investor day in June offered more details on the plan, 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.
What Agentic AI Means
Agentic AI is the term Qualcomm is using to describe this approach. The company has not detailed exactly how the agents operate, but the idea centers on AI capabilities that run on the device rather than in the cloud.
For users, the promise is immediacy. An agent that lives on your phone can answer a question faster than waiting for a cloud server to process it. It can also adapt to your habits over time, learning what you want without needing to retrain from scratch each session.
The chips are now on the market, and the companies that use them will be the ones to test whether agentic AI holds up in everyday use.
Key Facts Box
- Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 announced at Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Hawaii
- Qualcomm CDMA Technologies segment revenue: $8.5 billion of $9.9 billion total sales for the quarter
- Handset sales: $5.1 billion
- Automotive sales: $1.5 billion
- Fiscal 2029 non-handset revenue projection: nearly doubled to $40 billion
Companies Using Qualcomm Chips
- Xiaomi
- Motorola (MSI)
- ZTE
The move is a clear signal of where Qualcomm thinks the industry is headed. Local AI is no longer a novelty; it is a feature that ships in the box. Whether users actually choose it depends on how well it works.
Source material: “Qualcomm reveals 2 new smartphone chips focusing on agentic AI,” Yahoo Finance.
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