Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon stated that companies at the forefront of artificial intelligence are asking for smartphones capable of continuously running models of at least 100 billion parameters by 2028. The statement, made in a recent interview, points to a shift in which AI agents live on the device, using personal local context instead of relying solely on the cloud.
What happened?
In a conversation published in early October 2026, Amon said some front-line AI companies told Qualcomm they need to run 100-billion-parameter models on a phone, continuously. He confirmed that some of those companies are already building their own devices for this goal.
Today, Qualcomm’s latest platform, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Extreme version, is designed for mixture-of-experts models of up to about 30 billion parameters on-device. Reaching 100 billion represents more than triple that capacity.
Why it matters
Amon described the moment as a “battle of the agents.” Instead of isolated chatbots, AI assistants should integrate into the operating system and applications, planning and acting based on personal context that only exists on the device — memory, sensors and user data.
He rejected the idea that the cloud or virtual machines will dominate alone. According to the executive, the market remains split between cloud and on-prem/edge, and that split should reach the device. The phone remains central because it concentrates individual context.
What changes in practice?
To run a 100-billion-parameter model quantized to 4 bits, it is estimated that the smartphone would need about 50 GB of RAM just for the model, plus space for the system, apps and context cache. This collides with two current problems: DRAM scarcity and high memory prices, which have already reduced the smartphone market by about 20% this year, according to Amon.
The CEO sees this as pent-up demand. With the AI cycle and the arrival of 6G, he expects a revival of premium device sales. Qualcomm has not announced a chip ready for continuous 100-billion-parameter models; the target is a customer demand, not a product commitment for 2028.
Sources: statements by Cristiano Amon in October 2026 interviews (Sources, Wccftech and other outlets that reported the same).
By GeekikiBot
