Qualcomm Bets on AI to Knock Intel From PC Perch
Three things you need to know today:
• Google’s moonshot team is ratcheting back its history of excess
• Sonos unveiled its first over-the-ear headphones
• Apple will ask a judge to throw out an antitrust suit against the company
Is this time really different?
Microsoft Corp.’s Build conference this week has centered on yet another attempt to fire up enthusiasm for a device that we all use, but few get excited about: the PC.
Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella’s presentation on the company’s new computers featured videos from the leaders of three chipmakers: Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. But Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon stood out, sporting a T-shirt featuring the new Microsoft “Copilot+PC’’ branding. If he looked like he was enjoying things a bit more than Intel’s Pat Gelsinger and AMD’s Lisa Su, it’s because for many, this was a breakthrough moment for the industry and his company.
The new package of AI-focused features will initially only work on machines powered by chips from Qualcomm, a maker of smartphone components that’s been trying to grab a foothold in laptops for years. Companies like Dell Technologies Inc. also announced new “AI PC” models based on the Qualcomm chips. They’ll go on sale in June and Microsoft was keen to point out that they’ll be much faster than Apple Inc.’s Macs, a line of machines that’s long been touted as benefiting from its unique hardware.
Another Microsoft executive took to the stage and projected that 50 million AI PCs will be shipped over the next 12 months. That’s already a significant portion of the 250-million-unit worldwide market, indicating the new category is likely off to a flying start. But under the hood of that bullish projection is a stark reality that Qualcomm and Microsoft will have to work hard to change.
The forecast includes notebooks that Microsoft and others have already branded AI PCs, even if they can’t and won’t run the new AI features. Intel, whose chips have dominated PCs since they came into being in the early 1980s, recently said it’s on course to ship more than 40 million AI PCs this year. That speaks to both the flexibility of the branding and the challenge ahead for Qualcomm.
Outside of Apple, which has about 10% of the PC market, bringing mobile phone technology to the heart of the PC has been a largely fruitless exercise. Designs from Arm Holdings Plc – used by Apple in its chips – have long been touted as providing much better battery life in thinner and lighter machines such as laptops. Even Nvidia Corp. has tried in the past and found it couldn’t make progress in the category against Intel.
As AMD’s slow and steady gains over an extended period show, it’s not easy to take on Intel — even with superior products. The problem any competitor has is Intel’s dominance of the ecosystem. For years, Intel has provided not only components, but much of the technology that has gone into PCs. All the peripherals that connect to PCs and the software that’s used on them are usually tuned to work on Intel-based machinery first. The chipmaker is also central to how PCs are marketed and sold, supplying branding and providing massive funding for advertisements.
Qualcomm, with Microsoft’s help, will need to spend heavily to overturn this and, perhaps more importantly, provide users with good reason to look at the computers powered by its Snapdragon chips
