Qualcomm launches new chips to power AI wearables

On Tuesday, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon announced that the chipmaker is working on over 40 different AI wearable devices. To support this pipeline, the company is launching two new offerings: Snapdragon Reality Elite, a mixed-reality glasses platform designed for on-device AI (where AI processing is performed locally on the chip), and the Scalable Turnkey AI-Ready Toolkit (START), a hardware and software stack for AI devices. The move signals a strategic bet that the next major computing platform will shift away from traditional smartphones toward diverse wearable form factors.

The Snapdragon Reality Elite platform is built to power both stand-alone video-see-through (VST) headsets, which layer digital content over a camera feed, and lightweight, tethered optical-see-through (OST) glasses, which blend digital imagery directly into the field of view. According to Qualcomm, the platform delivers significant performance improvements over its previous platform:

• Up to 60% improvement in GPU performance
• Up to 30% improvement in CPU performance
• Up to 160% improvement in NPU performance
• Support for 4.4K per-eye resolution at 90 fps, up from the previous 4.3K per-eye resolution

These specifications allow the platform to run a 3-billion-parameter language model at 45 tokens per second, enabling fast, local AI interactions. Partners such as XREAL and Play for Dream are already set to use the new platform for upcoming devices.

To help other hardware manufacturers enter the market quickly, Qualcomm is also introducing START. The toolkit includes an AR chip, software, companion apps, and a white-label program (a program offering reference designs for manufacturers). Through this program, Qualcomm is offering three reference designs, including an audio and camera setup, a monocular display, and a binocular display. Eyewear manufacturers Inspecs and O’Neill, which is owned by TitanFlex, are among the first partners to join the program. Qualcomm stated that START will expand to support other form factors in the future.

Amon framed these launches as a response to an industry shift toward wearable devices that remain with the user constantly to provide contextual AI assistance. This transition could challenge established smartphone competitors like Apple and Samsung. “Right now, we have over 40 designs of those devices, and I’m telling you, the types of form factors are very, very broad,” Amon said.

Why it matters

Qualcomm is explicitly positioning itself as the foundational silicon layer for whatever comes after the smartphone, betting that a new wave of hardware startups building novel form factors will emerge.