Qualcomm is strategically leveraging its heritage in connectivity to carve out a broad position in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) landscape. Its approach is about embedding intelligence seamlessly from the network edge into a vast array of devices, from battery-powered embedded devices and edge AI “boxes” to AI Personal Computers (PCs) and now desktops, and finally the data center. COMPUTEX did not see any new silicon from Qualcomm, but it did offer a convention of partners and customers, and messaging about Qualcomm’s strategy as robust across most locations of compute with the exception of the data center.
Bolstered by key hires from the PC industry at this pivotal time, Qualcomm is declaring itself “an AI company.” Its Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy involves direct engagement with Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs), design houses, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), System Integrators (SIs), distributors, and increasingly, a focus on end verticals. A critical part of this transformation has been building out its staff within OEMs, working closely with both their core and regional offices to ensure deeper collaboration complemented by an external marketing offensive.
AI PC
Qualcomm's X portfolio demonstrates how it is competing at the “portfolio level” by embedding AI across a broad spectrum. Its value proposition is clearly defined: for consumers, it is about AI capabilities, performance, and battery life, while for the enterprise and tomorrow's workplace (where Intel and, to a lesser extent, AMD are established), the focus is on future-proofing the work environment, emphasizing efficiency, performance, and lifecycle management.
Qualcomm is making a bold play in the Windows ecosystem to define what the AI PC means, with 85+ designs secured for the Snapdragon X platform. Strategic partnerships with Microsoft, showcasing Satya Nadella's AI PC vision and features like Recall, and major OEMs like HP, Lenovo, are vital to this effort—especially because OEMs are developing independent AI PC features that will run alongside Copilot+, requiring individual platform optimizations. The overarching goal is to help OEMs focus on brand awareness for Snapdragon, positioning it to stand alongside Intel and AMD. It aims to differentiate Snapdragon PCs visually and experientially from x86 machines and to establish a strong market presence before NVIDIA with MediaTek enter the Arm-based Windows arena.
However, significant challenges remain. Qualcomm must tackle Intel's vPro enterprise legacy, a friction it acknowledges, while noting AMD's progress in enterprise Information Technology (IT). The x86 ecosystem’s established legacy in gaming is another area where Qualcomm will need to improve. Nonetheless, the shift toward multi-vendor enterprise IT strategies post-COVID-19 is promising. While early adopters in the commercial space prioritize battery and performance over price, price competitiveness will become more important for mass-market adoption in consumer markets.
Zooming Out—Robotics, Automotive, and Other Edge AI
The expanding device ecosystem includes industrial connectivity, consumer retail processors, and a significant push into robotics and drones, leveraging existing automotive silicon. Central to this is its custom Oryon Central Processing Unit (CPU) core, debuting in Snapdragon X Elite for PCs, then 8 Elite for mobile, Ride for automotive, and with a next-generation iteration planned for data center CPUs targeting inference.
AI Developer Moat—Edge Impulse
Qualcomm’s recently acquired developer base is being carefully cultivated—Edge Impulse will remain open, but new features will funnel developers toward Qualcomm hardware for premium features. This cross-sell strategy, alongside the established connectivity piece, should allow Qualcomm to establish market share by enabling its existing customers to leverage the simplicity of AI model development via Edge Impulse and usher the significant installed base of developers on the platform toward its hardware. The recognition of Vision Language Models (VLMs) as a horizontal opportunity is also an effective strategy for penetrating diverse verticals that will leverage the more intuitive use of natural language to inject intelligence into vision-based applications in areas ranging from security to manufacturing.
AI Data Center
Crucially missing from Qualcomm’s COMPUTEX messaging was the AI data center—a burgeoning area of opportunity that is being targeted by silicon vendors across the spectrum, including archrival MediaTek. Qualcomm’s CPUs will make their way into NVL72 systems via NVLink Fusion, but these will mainly address host CPU use cases orchestrating the workloads of pure AI accelerators fused into the system and made up of NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) or Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). We will likely need to wait until Snapdragon Summit in September to understand how the company will build on Cloud AI 100 and bring an inference engine to market with better prospects than its predecessor.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Qualcomm's AI strategy is comprehensive, leveraging its connectivity DNA to sell AI capabilities into a new generation of intelligent devices. Its focus is shifting decisively from just chips to complete, market-relevant solutions, backed by significant marketing investment and deep OEM collaboration. The vision extends to rebooting “seamless” cross-device experiences, with AI as the key disruptor, particularly looking forward toward 2026. However, a crucial final piece for success will be ensuring that these AI capabilities are not just powerful, but also front and center for the consumer. AI features were hard to find and delineate in AI PC demos, which misses a crucial opportunity to showcase the progress over last year, when there was very little meat on the bone. To establish AI PC market share, these on-device AI features must be more prominent and linked to real-life productivity enhancing use cases such as live translation or semantic indexing. For Qualcomm to truly win (especially in the consumer sector), making its AI capabilities easily discoverable and compelling to the end user will be paramount.
For more AI technology developments our analysts observed at COMPUTEX 2025, refer to the following articles: