Qualcomm unveils two new smartphone chips with a focus on artificial intelligence

Qualcomm has announced the launch of two new processors for smartphones, placing particular emphasis on the artificial intelligence capabilities these chips can support directly on the device, without relying on a cloud connection. The announcement comes amid intensifying competition among hardware makers to deliver superior on-device AI performance.

Local performance for complex AI models

According to TechCrunch, the company said the more powerful of the two new chips is capable of running a mixture-of-experts model with 30 billion parameters locally. This is a notable achievement, given that models of this size have until now required far more powerful hardware, typically found in servers or dedicated computers.

The mixture-of-experts architecture allows an AI model to activate only certain specialized "sub-networks" depending on the type of task, thereby reducing resource consumption compared with traditional models of the same size. The fact that a mobile phone chip can process such a model locally marks an important step toward freeing mobile devices from dependence on cloud infrastructure for artificial intelligence tasks.

The broader industry race

The launch of these chips fits into a wider industry trend, in which manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and MediaTek are investing heavily in developing components capable of supporting AI functions directly on devices. Running models locally offers advantages such as reduced latency, greater protection of users' personal data, and the ability for applications to work even without an internet connection.

According to the cited source, Qualcomm did not disclose the full technical details of the new chips' internal architecture, but the company stressed that they will be integrated into upcoming generations of premium and upper-mid-range phones. Phone manufacturers are expected to start announcing devices equipped with these new processors in the coming months.

No independent benchmarks have yet been published to confirm the performance claims made by Qualcomm, but the announcement reinforces the trend showing that generative artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important criterion in choosing smartphone hardware components.