Qualcomm says PC push is finally paying off

Driving the news: Qualcomm said on its earnings call Wednesday that its chips were in more than 10% of laptops costing $800 or more that were sold at domestic retailers during the holiday season.

• The company has since introduced new versions of its X Elite processor that will power computers costing around $600.
• Qualcomm says more than 80 PC models using its chips are in the works, and it expects that number to top 100 by next year.

Yes, but: Akash Palkhiwala, Qualcomm's chief operating and financial officer, told Axios that it was the performance and battery life of the Qualcomm-powered machines that drove their popularity — not their AI features.

• A big industrywide AI PC push was hampered by Microsoft's repeated delays around Recall, its signature Copilot+ PC feature.

The big picture: Qualcomm is counting on the AI boom — and specifically a shift to running generative AI on phones and laptops — to boost its chip fortunes in the coming years.

• Palkhiwala pointed to the rise of DeepSeek and Microsoft's quick release of a version of DeepSeek that can run on Qualcomm-powered Copilot+ PCs as an example of what's to come.
• Beyond models running locally, Palkhiwala said more computers, phones and other devices will use AI as the user interface, with people able to just ask systems for the actions and information they want.
• Developers, meanwhile, will find all manner of apps that can run locally, he said, likening it to the dawn of mobile apps with the rise of the iPhone and Android.