Qualcomm (QCOM) came to CES 2025 on a mission to stake its claim as a major player in the PC market, and it proved it’s on its way with the release of its latest Snapdragon X chip. Available in mid-range laptops priced at roughly $600, the Snapdragon X is designed to provide consumers with the power to run on-device AI applications and features without having to break the bank.
But the company isn’t content with simply taking on the likes of AMD (AMD) and Intel (INTC) in the laptop space. It has also launched new mini desktop computers with partner Lenovo geared toward consumers and enterprise customers.
And during an interview with Yahoo Finance, CEO Cristiano Amon hinted that the chip giant has more up its sleeve in the coming months.
“We want to be able to have a portfolio that can go into every price point with a Copilot+ PC,” Amon said outside Qualcomm’s booth on the CES showroom floor in Las Vegas. “We’re not stopping here. We’re just starting with [that] portfolio of products.”
In particular, Amon said, Qualcomm is looking to expand into the high-performance PC graphics market, something that would put the company into direct competition with heavyweight Nvidia (NVDA).
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Qualcomm isn’t new to the PC space. The company previously attempted to break into the market with chips designed for Windows 10 laptops, but the effort never gained any traction due to compatibility issues with Windows apps.
But things are different this time around. Reviews of laptops running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips are generally positive, with reviewers pointing to impressive performance and long-lasting batteries that you don’t find on AMD or Intel-powered systems.
Qualcomm is also working with Microsoft (MSFT) to ensure that apps designed to run on AMD and Intel’s chips can run on Qualcomm’s. So far, the companies are doing well enough at the task. In my own testing, Microsoft’s Snapdragon-powered Surface Laptop provided exceptional battery life and plenty of performance power and didn’t suffer from any app compatibility issues.
Gaming, however, is a different story. Gamers require serious processing and graphics power, and while the Snapdragon X Elite is a strong chip, gamers, especially desktop gamers, will be looking for dedicated graphics chips that can run their favorite titles.
It’s unclear whether Qualcomm is even angling to hit that particular space; Amon could simply mean the company is working on chips with more powerful integrated graphics chips built into its Snapdragon line of processors.
If it is looking to get into the dedicated graphics space, however, it would mean having to tangle with Nvidia, which controls a staggering 88% of the desktop graphics space alone, according to Tom’s Hardware.
If taking on Nvidia isn’t enough, Qualcomm’s entire PC effort relies on stealing share from AMD and Intel, and that’s a tall task. According to Mercury Research, via Tom’s Hardware, Intel still controls some 76% of the PC market, but the company’s recent struggles related to its massive turnaround effort, including the ouster of CEO Pat Gelsinger, give Qualcomm an opportunity to take market share from the chip behemoth.
AMD isn’t resting on its laurels either. The company is similarly looking to capture greater market share from its archrival and is doing so by leaning heavily on AI PCs and gaming.
For his part, Amon said Qualcomm’s growth has little to do with its competitor’s struggles and everything to do with its own efforts.
“The incredible traction you’re seeing right now is just because we develop a very competitive platform …independent of what our competitors were doing,” Amon said.
“We’re just starting. We’ll continue to have a roadmap of products and we will be pushing the boundaries of performance and battery life at every generation,” he added.
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
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