Qualcomm recently held its Snapdragon Summit in Maui on the beautiful shores of Wailea. It’s an awe-inspiring setting for a technology conference, one that could potentially be distracting. However, that was not the case for this event. Qualcomm kept the 400-plus assembled industry analysts, media and company-sponsored influencers engaged across three days with executive leadership keynotes, deep-dive sessions and product demonstrations.
In this article, I will examine one pre-event announcement and one that was revealed at Snapdragon Summit 2024 that are relevant to my areas of coverage. I also had an opportunity to spend time with the executive leadership team to gain further insights into where Qualcomm is potentially headed in the future. My Moor Insights & Strategy colleague Anshel Sag will be posting his insights related to the other Snapdragon Summit 2024 announcements—so stay tuned on that font. Let’s dive in.
Qualcomm Networking Pro A7 Elite
Just prior to Snapdragon Summit 2024, Qualcomm announced its Networking Pro A7 Elite wireless networking platform. The new offering marries Wi-Fi 7 connectivity and edge AI enablement to take advantage of the company’s continued investment in NPUs. While AIOps is not a new concept within enterprise networking to enable assurance and connectivity resilience, including on-device AI is a new development tied to the great attention being paid to generative AI use cases across the whole tech landscape.
What I find noteworthy about the Networking Pro A7 Elite is the opportunity it provides to enhance privacy by processing sensitive information directly on a gateway or access point with AI silicon. This functionality can complement other security controls, offering organizations a layered approach to ensure the highest levels of protection—along with the multi-channel connectivity, encryption and device support enhancements provided by Wi-Fi 7. Qualcomm also delivers a complete platform that includes both silicon and software. To this point, its AI Hub is designed to allow developers to create new generative AI applications that leverage the power of agents, a point that chief executive Cristiano Amon made as a cornerstone of his opening keynote at Snapdragon Summit 2024.
Snapdragon 8 Elite
At the Summit, Qualcomm announced its first mobile platform to feature its second-generation Oryon CPU, Adreno GPU and Hexagon NPU. Snapdragon 8 Elite’s combination of features and blazing performance could be described as a mini datacenter tech stack, one that supports multimodal gen AI processing of voice, sight, sound, text and images as well as emotional and expression context, while ensuring privacy controls.
The potential game-changer here is bringing this level of functionality to mobile devices at an extremely low power envelope. Qualcomm invited a bevy of device partners to speak about their plans to leverage the solution in next-generation product designs, but I would speculate that Snapdragon 8 Elite could also find its way into a new class of edge connectivity and security infrastructure in the future. It’s a logical assumption given the company’s deft ability to find new applications and use cases for its silicon.
Delivering On The Promise Of AI-First Experiences
The product announcements, demonstrations and technical deep-dive sessions at Snapdragon Summit 2024 went far to reinforce Amon’s theme in his opening keynote that Qualcomm is facilitating AI-first experiences for its customers. The company’s growing list of design wins in the automotive segment is one proof point for its success in adjacent markets and the depth of the Snapdragon SoC platform. AI-first experiences in the cockpit include higher levels of safety through intelligent, self-learning ADAS functionality and natural language interface for ease of driver control and troubleshooting of the dreaded “Check Engine” light.
Amon also hinted at some of the exciting things the company has in store in 2025, teasing attendees to book their tickets to attend the company’s 10th annual Snapdragon Summit next year. Qualcomm continues to fire on all cylinders, delivering step-level improvements in both its silicon and its financial earnings. However, MediaTek continues to find new success in moving up its silicon stack, offering premium features for mobile devices as well as finding its own adjacent sales opportunities in IoT. In my view, it’s becoming a two-horse race, one that should continue to raise the bar and foster mobile silicon innovation.
