Qualcomm CEO Amon Predicts 100B Parameter AI Phones by 2028 and a 'Battle of the Agents'
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon predicts that smartphones will run 100 billion parameter AI models by 2028, shifting more computing from the cloud to devices and initiating a 'battle of the agents.'
Newsnibs Staff
- 2026-10-12
- Updated 4:51 PM UTC
(San Diego, USA)
Qualcomm chief executive Cristiano Amon said leading AI companies are pushing the chipmaker to ensure future smartphones can run AI models with as many as 100 billion parameters by 2028, a shift he said would move a growing share of AI computing onto the devices themselves rather than the cloud. Amon made the comments on a recent episode of the Sources podcast.
Amon pointed to the smartphone's access to personal context, app data and sensor information as an advantage for running AI locally, both for privacy and for usefulness. He predicted a "battle of the agents," in which AI assistants built deeply into a phone's operating system take actions on a user's behalf. Amon said that shift would create a new smartphone supercycle driven by AI capabilities.
Amon called the AI buildout "the largest development platform ever created by mankind." He said phones will remain central to the AI computing landscape alongside data centers, PCs, cars and wearables.
Qualcomm shares fell about 0.3% during Friday's regular trading session and slipped another 0.1% after hours. The stock is up 3% so far this year and 6% over the past 12 months, trailing the broader market: the S&P 500 ETF has gained 16% and the Invesco QQQ Trust has gained 23% over the same period.
Photo by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash
