Qualcomm CEO: AI will be bigger than expected, personal devices finally arriving

In an interview, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon articulated his vision of Qualcomm's future and the semiconductor industry's next chapter. He began by invoking his characteristic "gladiator business" analogy—the idea that competition offers only three outcomes (win, lose, or mutual loss), each with a 33% chance of success. This framing set the tone for his broader claim that Qualcomm must continuously evolve or face obsolescence.

On artificial intelligence, Amon predicted it will vastly exceed current expectations, drawing a historical parallel to the internet. In the 2000s, he noted, people predicted the internet would be significant. Yet 26 years later, the internet has grown by an order of magnitude beyond those forecasts, proving that transformative technologies are typically underhyped in the long run. He applied this logic to AI, suggesting similar underestimation is occurring now.

Addressing the long-anticipated shift away from smartphones, Amon confronted skepticism directly. The interviewer pressed him on the history of failed device categories, asking whether the promised future of personal AI devices was genuinely arriving. Amon responded by citing 40 active design efforts across his company's ecosystem: glasses, jewelry, pendants, pens, bracelets, and watches. Not all will succeed, he conceded, but he expressed particular confidence in glasses as the optimal form factor—"prime real estate" positioned close to the eyes, ears, and mouth. This measured optimism suggests Qualcomm believes wearables are finally viable, driven by AI as a compelling use case.

Questions about Qualcomm's identity as an AI company prompted Amon to declare that the distinction between "computing company" and "AI company" is dissolving. Because the future of computing is AI, he argued, any computing company must become an AI company by definition. This represents a fundamental repositioning: Qualcomm is no longer primarily a smartphone-chip vendor but a foundational AI infrastructure play.

The interview closed on geopolitical and trade matters. Amon revealed he had recently accompanied President Trump to meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, returning with what he called optimistic views about the semiconductor supply chain. He argued there is clear value in providing American semiconductors and technology stacks to Chinese companies. When pressed on whether Americans should be concerned about advanced chip exports to China, Amon reframed the question as a choice between American technology for America alone or American technology for the world. He noted that chips are embedded in every consumer device, vehicle, and appliance, making it mathematically inevitable that leading semiconductor companies maintain Chinese market exposure. He concluded that such exposure is "a good thing"—a statement that likely reflects both business interest and a strategic argument for less restrictive U.S.–China technology trade policies.

Amon's remarks reveal a semiconductor industry at an inflection point. As traditional smartphone growth plateaus, chipmakers are pivoting toward ambient and wearable computing as the next growth frontier. His confidence in 40 active personal AI device designs suggests the industry perceives genuine commercial traction where previous wearable cycles faltered—a shift he attributes to AI as the enabling technology. The emphasis on glasses specifically reflects a calculated bet on form factors that integrate naturally into daily behavior rather than requiring user adoption of entirely new categories.

His comparison of AI to the internet carries strategic weight: both were transformative general-purpose technologies that exceeded forecasts. By positioning Qualcomm as computationally central to an AI-everywhere future, Amon is reframing the company's mission beyond handset processors. The implication is that Qualcomm's survival depends on dominating chips for the next platform shift, not defending smartphone market share.

His commentary on China trade, delivered after a high-profile visit with President Trump and Xi Jinping, indicates a semiconductor industry actively seeking to stabilize U.S.–China commercial ties after years of export restrictions. Amon's argument—that American companies derive strategic benefit from Chinese markets and that restricting such access weakens U.S. technology's global position—suggests the industry views current U.S. policy as overly constraining relative to business reality.

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