Beyond the smartphones: Qualcomm CEO sees robotics as top growth engine by 2028

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon announced a strategic shift, marking a new phase in the chip giant’s expansion into robotics. The company launched the Dragonwing series, a dedicated robotics processor designed to power a wide range of platforms, from industrial arms to humanoids.

Following the success in the mobile market, the company is applying a similar approach to robotics, where it aims to outpace its smartphone's growth. Its Snapdragon and Dragonwing processors now play a central role in the chips adopted by global electronic firms.

Regarding this shift, Amon told CNBC on Monday: “I think robotics will start to get scale within the next two years.”

“I think it’s going to become like a larger opportunity within two years.”, he added during the interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Various types of robots are hitting the market, ranging from industrial applications like robotic arms to the humanoid robots currently under development by Tesla and a profusion of Chinese companies.

Meanwhile, various reports estimate the massive growth of the robotics sector. For instance, McKinsey projects that the market for general-purpose robots could reach $370 billion by 2040, while other analysts predict a surge in the global market for humanoid robots. Robots require immense processing power and complex technical engineering to function. This growing optimism is largely driven by advancement in AI models specifically designed to give robots situational awareness allowing them to understand and act accordingly. This field is increasingly referred to as Physical AI.

“People have said just robotics alone could be a trillion-dollar opportunity in terms of market size as the reality we see now is because physical AI robots have become a lot more useful.”

Following recent robotics developments, Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, last year said that robotics is one of the company’s major potential sources of growth.