Qualcomm CEO says AI labs want 100B-parameter models on phones by 2028

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon stated that AI companies at the forefront of the industry are requesting the ability to run at least 100-billion-parameter models on phones by 2028, with the models running continuously.
Amon cited ByteDance's Doubao phone, made by Nubia, as an example of AI companies entering the smartphone market, noting that personal context and sensor data must remain on the device rather than in the cloud.
Memory prices have risen five to six times, causing the smartphone market to drop 20% this year, with mid-range and cheaper phones hit hardest while premium models held up.
Amon identified smart glasses as the most promising wearable market, estimating 50 to 60 million units with about 40 designs using Qualcomm chips, and plans to open-source the Modular platform under the Apache 2.0 licence for any chip.

Market and Hardware Impact

The smartphone market is down 20% this year due to memory price increases, though Amon described the issue as supply-driven rather than a lack of demand, with buyers purchasing about 1.2 billion phones annually.
Research firm Omdia has indicated that phone prices will remain high even after the memory shortage ends.
Elon Musk responded to the comments on X, stating the primary problem is RAM supply.

Qualcomm plans to demonstrate 6G technology at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, with early deployments expected in 2029 and 2030, and scale after 2030.
The company launched new glasses platforms at Snapdragon Summit 2026 in Maui.
Qualcomm will make the Modular software platform, acquired from Swift creator Chris Lattner, open source under the Apache 2.0 licence for deployment on Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, Intel, and other chips.