---
id: "2026-10-08-qualcomm-amon-ai-labs-100b-parameter-phones"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-08-qualcomm-amon-ai-labs-100b-parameter-phones/"
as_of: "2026-10-12T07:22:00+02:00"
date: "2026-10-08"
date_precision: day
category: hardware-compute
importance: 2
confidence: medium
status: [Partly confirmed]
sources: 5
editor: Adam Bicz
human_review: null
version: null
---

As of: 2026-10-12 07:22 CEST.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code). Human editor: Adam Bicz.
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-08-qualcomm-amon-ai-labs-100b-parameter-phones/

# AI companies ask for phones that run 100B-parameter models all the time by 2028

Full title: Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: AI companies ask for phones that run 100B-parameter models all the time by 2028

In an interview with Alex Heath's Sources, published Oct 8, 2026 and recorded at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, CEO Cristiano Amon said AI companies are already asking Qualcomm to support models of at least 100 billion parameters on phones by 2028, with AI running all the time. He expects a smartphone "supercycle" driven by AI agents. The 100B figure is the publisher's paraphrase; we read only the episode page, not a full transcript.

## Key facts
- Request from AI companies, as summarised by Sources: support for at least 100-billion-parameter models on phones by 2028, running continuously. For scale: Qualcomm's September 2026 flagship chip runs a 30B-parameter mixture-of-experts model locally
- Techmeme's headline (Oct 12) adds that Amon said AI companies are 'starting to do phones'; that wording is not on the episode page we read
- Amon expects an upgrade 'supercycle' from agents that use apps, know personal context and act for the user; buyers have delayed upgrades because of high memory prices
- On devices beyond phones and glasses: 'It feels like an iPod moment.' He is most bullish on smart glasses; camera earbuds, jewelry, pendants and badges are in testing, some with Qualcomm technology
- Qualcomm chips will power coming devices from 'AI companies like OpenAI' (Sources); they already power Meta's smart glasses
- Data centers: 'Our DNA is building chips, assuming there's a battery on the other side.' Qualcomm bought Modular (Chris Lattner's AI-software startup; all-stock deal of about $3.92B announced June 24, 2026, per Quartz and Reuters figures) to offer an alternative to Nvidia's software, and Amon said it will 'celebrate every single Modular deployment on Nvidia'
- 6G: demos expected at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, early deployments around 2029–2030; he described glasses and other devices as 'walking cameras on this world' feeding context to AI

## What happened

Alex Heath interviewed Cristiano Amon live at Snapdragon Summit. The episode page says AI companies are asking Qualcomm for phone chips
that can run models of at least 100 billion parameters by 2028, with AI active all the time. Amon also talked about AI wearables, Qualcomm's
move into data-center chips after buying Modular, and 6G.

## Why it matters

It is a chip supplier's view of what AI labs plan for consumer devices: models several times larger than today's on-device ones, running
continuously on the phone. The claim comes from one interview and is not confirmed by any lab.

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 161 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 100 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (training cutoff March 2026): 191 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 130 days after its cutoff

## Sources

1. [Sources (Alex Heath): Qualcomm's CEO on the coming AI phone supercycle (Oct 8, 2026)](https://sources.news/p/qualcomm-ceo-ai-phone) (sources.news, press)
2. [Quartz: Qualcomm acquires Modular in an all-stock deal (June 24, 2026)](https://qz.com/qualcomm-acquires-modular-ai-software-stock-deal-062426) (qz.com, press)
3. [Alex Heath on X: the Sources interview with Cristiano Amon (Oct 8)](https://x.com/alexeheath/status/2108275202174157044) (x.com, discussion)
4. [Fireside Alpha on X: clip and transcript of Amon's remarks (~641k views)](https://x.com/firesidealpha/status/2108930562794864912) (x.com, discussion)
5. [Elon Musk on X: 'Problem is RAM supply' (reply, ~509k views, Oct 11)](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2109260288314806434) (x.com, discussion)

## Changes

- 2026-10-12 (filed): Created (Techmeme, Oct 12). Written from the episode page (highlights and description), not a full transcript

## Related

- 2026-09-22: [Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 (2 nm) for on-device AI agents; Extreme runs a 30B MoE locally](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-22-snapdragon-8-elite-gen-6/index.md)
- People: [Elon Musk](https://postcutoff.com/person/elon-musk/)
- Archived: 4 posts, listed in https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-08-qualcomm-amon-ai-labs-100b-parameter-phones/index.json