AI is not just a talking point for Qualcomm: An interview with Cristiano Amon

“This is one company that has had an incredible ability to reinvent themselves over those many years in technology.”

Those are the words of Qualcomm Incorporated President & CEO Cristiano Amon, who recently joined renowned journalist Ben Thompson’s podcast, Stratechery. 

The two spent nearly an hour discussing Cristiano’s journey from Brazil to San Diego, his growth strategy and vision for the company, and his thoughts on Generative artificial intelligence (AI). 

From humble beginnings

Born and raised in Brazil, Cristiano was given a choice when it came to his future: become a doctor, lawyer or engineer. He chose the latter, and his choice took him from engineering school in his homeland, to his first job in Japan.

It was during his time in Japan that he first met Qualcomm, a small but mighty company forging the transition from analog to digital cellular via its code division multiple access (CDMA) technology. 

Cristiano was fascinated with Qualcomm’s visionary tech — he was asked to join the team in 1995, so he moved to San Diego and has been with the company ever since. 

Beyond 5G and the smartphone

Although Qualcomm got its start in CDMA, over the years, our company has gone above and beyond our initial role as technology leader in all things wireless. Today we continue to lead on wireless tech, but we are also advancing AI technologies and high-performance, low-power compute. 

That’s something Cristiano has loved about working at Qualcomm over the years — its ability to invest in things significantly ahead of where the market opportunity is. In his 27 years at the company, he’s seen how the company has broadened and deepened its technology portfolio and has evolved to be the intelligent computing leader it is today.

Another area of evolution that Cristiano speaks to, which has been a driver of growth, is the company’s move into new industries such as auto, edge networking, consumer mobile sectors such as compute and extended reality, augmented reality and virtual reality, and industrial internet of things sectors such as energy and logistics. Cristiano describes this transformation:

• “We look at the limitations of the screen size and we said, “Why not make glasses and make the bridge between physical and digital spaces?””
• “We’re looking into the broader digital transformation of enterprises, a smart camera, a robot, and we said those technologies we have for mobile are scalable to those end markets and it’s accretive to margins because most of the R&D to support this is from mobile.”

Qualcomm and AI 

Lastly, generative AI is a bright spot for Cristiano — one that is “very transformative” for the company. Why? Because he believes that in order for generative AI to scale, it needs to be capable of running locally, not just done in the cloud. There are also privacy and latency benefits to on-device AI that he speaks to. 

Cristiano’s passion and vision for the company, and where it’s headed, is evident in his conversation with Ben. If you haven’t, I urge you to give the episode a listen. The big takeaway: the future is bright with Qualcomm.