Qualcomm announced a new chip for Microsoft Windows laptops, claiming it outperforms some of Apple’s Mac chips. The Snapdragon Elite X chip, available in laptops next year, is enhanced for AI tasks like email summarization and image generation. These AI capabilities will also be integrated into Qualcomm’s smartphone chips, with Google and Meta expressing interest.
This revelation follows reports of Microsoft urging Qualcomm, Nvidia, and AMD to develop AI-enhanced chips for Windows. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella believes these chips will pave the way for a new generation of AI PCs for various users. Nadella emphasized the significance of their collaborative efforts in creating unparalleled experiences through a novel system architecture.
Qualcomm is set to rival Apple, which has seen a surge in market share since launching its custom chips in 2020. Qualcomm stated that the X Elite outpaces Apple’s M2 Max chip in specific tasks and is more energy-efficient than both Apple and Intel PC chips. According to Qualcomm’s Alex Katouzian, a standout feature is the chip’s ability to manage AI models with 13 billion parameters, indicating advanced AI capabilities.
Analyst Francis Sideco of TIRIAS Research believes that as companies like Adobe expand AI image generation tools, the demand for AI-capable laptops will grow, especially among small businesses and individual creators.
