Qualcomm CEO Amon: AI Firms Want 100B-Parameter Models Running on Phones by 2028
Qualcomm's Amon says AI firms want 100B-parameter models on phones by 2028. Gen 6 chips support mixture-of-experts models up to 30B parameters.
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon says unnamed AI companies want phones that can run at least a 100-billion-parameter model by 2028, with the thing "running kinda all the time." He gave the 2028 date in an Oct. 8 interview, after floating the 100-billion figure on Sept. 23. According to TokenPost, he described it as a request from AI companies, not a Qualcomm launch date or delivery commitment.
Now the numbers. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Extreme Gen 6, unveiled Sept. 22 on a 2-nanometer process, are designed to run mixture-of-experts models of up to 30 billion parameters on the device, per Crypto Briefing. TokenPost says "more than 30 billion" for the Extreme, so even today's ceiling depends on who you read. Qualcomm has not announced a phone chip that can run 100-billion-parameter models continuously.
The route there, according to Crypto Briefing, involves loading parameters from flash storage, expanding NPU memory, smarter flash management and a low-power memory architecture. Separately, always-on sensing hubs run models of roughly 200 million parameters in the background, and Qualcomm says its new chips handle about 1 million tokens per day.
The context is Amon's pitch that always-on "agentic" software will drive a smartphone upgrade supercycle. OpenAI is reportedly exploring hardware aimed at similar 2028 goals, though details have not been disclosed.
My take: a request is not a spec. We do not know who asked, and the cited reporting does not explain how a model that size runs all day without flattening the battery.
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Sources
Meanwhile at the anchor desk
Unnamed companies at the very forefront of AI, a 2028 deadline and a supercycle on the horizon! The guest list is a secret and I am already dressed.
What you can run today: up to 30 billion parameters on the new Snapdragon chips. 100 billion is a 2028 wish. Plan your storage accordingly.
