Qualcomm releases Android chip built for AI as memory shortage weighs on smartphone market

Skip Navigation cnbc.com Qualcomm releases Android chip built for AI as memory shortage weighs on smartphone market Livestream CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Markets Pre-Markets U.S. Markets Currencies Prediction Markets Cryptocurrency Futures & Commodities Bonds Funds & ETFs Business Economy Finance Health & Science Media Real Estate Energy Climate Transportation Investigations Industrials Retail Wealth Sports Life Small Business Investing Personal Finance Fintech Financial Advisors Options Action ETF Street Buffett Archive Earnings Trader Talk Tech Cybersecurity AI Enterprise Internet Media Mobile Social Media CNBC Disruptor 50 Tech Guide Politics & Policy White House Policy Defense Congress Expanding Opportunity Video Latest Video Full Episodes Livestream Live Audio Live TV Schedule CNBC Podcasts CEO Interviews CNBC Documentaries Digital Originals Watchlist Investing Club Trust Portfolio Analysis Trade Alerts Meeting Videos Homestretch Jim’s Columns Education Subscribe PRO Pro News Josh Brown Mike Santoli Calls of the Day My Portfolio Livestream Full Episodes Stock Screener Market Forecast Options Investing Chart Investing Subscribe Livestream Menu Make It select USA INTL Livestream Search quotes, news & videos Livestream Watchlist SIGN IN Create free account Qualcomm releases Android chip built for AI as memory shortage weighs on smartphone market Livestream CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Markets Business Investing Tech Politics & Policy Video Watchlist Investing Club PRO Livestream Menu Tech Qualcomm releases Android chip built for AI as memory shortage weighs on smartphone market Published Tue, Sep 22 2026 4:29 PM EDT Updated 5 Min Ago Kif Leswing@kifleswing WATCH LIVE Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via Email Key Points Qualcomm announced its newest Android phone chipsets called Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6. The launch comes as the broader smartphone industry contracts due to skyrocketing memory prices. Qualcomm is positioning phones running on its high-end chips as an “AI hub.” In this article QCOM-0.21 (-0.11%) Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon delivers a keynote speech during a press event ahead of COMPUTEX on June 01, 2026 in Taipei, Taiwan. Cheng Chia Huang | Getty Images Qualcomm unveiled its newest Android phone chipsets, which will be tuned for on-device artificial intelligence and will compete with Apple’s A20 Pro in iPhones. The new chips, under the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 brand name, will be built on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 2-nanometer manufacturing process, and will be included in premium smartphones from companies including Motorola, Xiaomi and ZTE, Qualcomm said in a press release on Tuesday. Qualcomm is introducing two versions of the chip, one with extra capabilities and “extreme” branding. The launch comes as the broader smartphone industry is reeling from a worldwide contraction due to skyrocketing memory costs that have driven up the price of finished devices. The overall smartphone market is expected to shrink 14% in terms of units shipped in 2026, and potentially another 1% in 2027, according to Counterpoint Research. Smartphone companies have responded by focusing more on the premium tier of devices, which are targeted at consumers with more disposable income. Qualcomm is positioning phones running on its high-end chips as an “AI hub” able to process AI models and produce tokens without relying on the cloud. At a launch event earlier this month, Apple framed its iPhones as “intelligent personal hubs” that can do on-device AI processing. “We’re going into this transition from what is a very phone-centric model to now an agentic-centric model for new experiences,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said on Tuesday at a launch event. In addition to the central processor (CPU), the new Qualcomm chipsets also include a graphics processing unit (GPU) as well as a neural processing unit (NPU) to handle AI workloads, which can handle agents running in the background. Qualcomm also added security features to control agentic access to sensitive data. During Tuesday’s launch, which was livestreamed, Amon brought up Google’s Rick Osterloh, the head of platforms and devices at the search giant. He said Google’s Gemini will be able to understand the user’s context — if the person is in a car, for example — thanks to the chip’s processing power and sensors. Qualcomm said the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chipset can run models with 30 billion parameters. “AI will now require the device to do much more than just execute commands, and it’s going to be less about navigating apps, and and it’s going to be about completing tasks for you,” Amon said. 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