PC reborn: Qualcomm bets big on India’s AI leap with Snapdragon X | Exclusive – Technology News

Just like India, Snapdragon is breaking barriers and disrupting global markets, Qualcomm said today while launching Snapdragon X, its latest and most affordable chip for laptops. And so, the potential for India and the growth of Snapdragon seems inevitable and heavily reliant on one another.

The Indian economy, one of the world’s largest, is poised for rapid growth. With nearly 30 percent of the global STEM workforce sourced from India, the country’s talent base is driving innovation and invariably, the demand for advanced computing. The Indian PC market’s record-breaking 4.4 million units shipped in 2024, coupled with an AI adoption rate more than twice the global average, highlights India’s embrace of advanced technologies, the San Diego-based chipmaker highlighted.  

Qualcomm aims to capitalise on this momentum, partnering with Microsoft, developers, and retailers like Flipkart to bring AI-powered computing to the masses. On the sidelines of the launch in India, Kedar Kondap, SVP and GM, Compute and Gaming, at Qualcomm, spoke exclusively to Financial Express, taking us through the nitty-gritties of how its new chip could be the first—of many—big tools to democratise AI. Excerpts.

FE: Qualcomm has launched the Snapdragon X series in India. What’s driving this push, especially now?

Kedar Kondap: For us, India is a very important market. We want to bring excitement to PCs, to transform them. With the introduction of the Elite, Plus, and X series platforms, it’s really PC reborn. We focused on three pillars: performance, battery life, and AI. The penetration of PCs in India is less than 10%, so there’s a lot of opportunity to grow. Consumers are looking for large form factor devices and next-gen use cases. With Snapdragon X, we’re bringing devices at the $600 price point, the sweet spot for India. The timing is perfect, and we’ve introduced these platforms in quick succession.

FE: Qualcomm has ventured into laptops before. What’s different this time?

Kedar Kondap: A few things have changed. The Qualcomm Oryon CPU is game-changing in terms of CPU performance. The architecture provides superior battery life, especially when unplugged. We don’t drop performance like the competition. And we’re at the cusp of a big change with AI. Artists, creators, architects, lawyers – everyone will use AI. Running it on-device, personalisation, access to data – it all matters now.

FE: Let’s talk about the naming and branding: X, Plus, Elite. How does it work?

Kedar Kondap: We want consumers to easily relate to product tiers. Elite is for devices over $1000, Plus for the $800 range, and X for $600. These price points may vary based on OEM specs, but we want to keep it simple.

FE: How do you ensure optimisation across these different tiers?

Kedar Kondap: We keep the architecture constant. You get the same heterogeneous architecture across all tiers. The Qualcomm Oryon CPU is scaled to different tiers with varying core counts and frequencies. The NPU and DDR bandwidth are the same. You get a similar experience regardless of the tier. We’ve made it simple for OEMs; they can design one PCB and use it for X, Plus, or Elite.

FE: What’s Qualcomm’s approach to gaming on these platforms?

Kedar Kondap: We’re focused on optimising games, building on our legacy of Elite gaming on Android phones. We have relationships with game developers and engine creators. We have over 1200 optimised games. We’re not aiming for high-end gaming devices, but we’re focused on AAA titles. We’ve talked about Control, and many others are optimised.

FE: What’s the strategy behind aiming for a $600 (roughly Rs 52,000) laptop?

Kedar Kondap: Within six months, we’ve launched three tiers, scaling well. We want to democratise AI, make it accessible. Our focus is on software, developers, and the ecosystem. We’re building the AI Hub, getting models optimised. The AI space is moving fast. Consumers need to see the benefits.

FE: How are you addressing local AI needs in India?

Kedar Kondap: We’re partnering with local LLM models, optimising them for the Snapdragon platform, including language localisation. It’s still early, but we’re moving beyond LLM search to multimodalities and text-to-image. At Qualcomm, we’ve enabled CodeGen for software development and Copilot for program managers. We’re offloading mundane tasks and improving productivity.

FE: What’s the future of on-device AI?

Kedar Kondap: Running everything in the cloud is expensive and unviable. On-device AI will be pervasive. We expect a hybrid model, with some large models. The industry is moving rapidly. I’m excited about what’s coming next, but you’ll have to wait a little longer.

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