Qualcomm has introduced it’s shifting its focus from offering chips completely for communications units and doubling down on its efforts to assist AI workloads.
The corporate is transitioning to changing into an “clever edge computing” agency, Alex Katouzian, a senior vice chairman at Qualcomm, stated throughout a keynote speech on the Computex present in Taipei Tuesday.
AI workloads require plenty of compute energy and in February, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon X75, its newest 5G modem element that the corporate stated would be the world’s first modem-RF system for 5G-Superior — a set of specs designed to enhance velocity, maximize protection, and improve mobility and energy effectivity for cellular units. The X75 can be reportedly in a position to course of AI workloads 2.5 occasions quicker than its predecessor, the X70.
Native units supply superior efficiency per watt, in comparison with cloud-based knowledge facilities, Katouzian stated throughout his keynote, noting that transferring ahead, it gained’t be possible for AI workloads to be hosted purely within the cloud and essentially the most environment friendly expertise would come from sharing workloads between consumer units and the cloud.
“As progress within the variety of linked units and knowledge visitors continues to speed up and knowledge heart prices climb, it merely gained’t be attainable to ship every part to the cloud,” Katouzian stated.
As the necessity for chips that may assist AI capabilities continues to skyrocket, Qualcomm is only one of many corporations, together with Nvidia and Arm, that has pivoted its enterprise mannequin to make the most of the rising demand.
Nevertheless, though Katouzian stated through the keynote that, so far, Qualcomm has shipped two billion AI-capable merchandise, in Qualcomm’s second-quarter earnings for monetary yr 2023, the corporate noticed gross sales from handset chips, a core enterprise for the corporate, decline 17% yr on yr.
In a press release issued on the time, CEO Cristiano Amon blamed the outcomes on a difficult atmosphere, and stated the corporate had not seen proof that smartphone gross sales are recovering in China. In keeping with IDC, smartphone shipments for the worldwide market declined over 14% within the first quarter of 2023.
Regardless of the difficult market, chatting with analysts after the corporate reported its 2023 second quarter outcomes, Amon stated that Qualcomm is “uniquely positioned” to assist the abundance of AI use circumstances on edge units.
“We’re advancing AI to make core on-device capabilities ubiquitous reminiscent of notion, reasoning, motion, and now, content material creation,” he stated. “With tens of millions of AI-enabled platform shipments per yr, unparalleled AI processing efficiency per watt within the broadest vary of system classes from smartphones to PCs, automotive, and IoT, Qualcomm is firmly on the forefront of this upcoming transformation.”
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