Qualcomm

2025 has seen major telecom and tech M&A activity, including billion-dollar deals in fiber, AI, cloud, and cybersecurity. This monthly tracker details key acquisitions, like AT&T buying Lumenโ€™s fiber assets and Googleโ€™s $32B move for Wiz, highlighting how consolidation is shaping the competitive landscape.
Qualcomm is moving from mobile NPUs into rack-scale AI infrastructure, positioning its AI200 (2026) and AI250 (2027) to challenge Nvidia/AMD on the economics of large-scale inference. The company is translating its Hexagon neural processing unit heritageโ€”refined across phones and PCsโ€”into data center accelerators tuned for inferencing, not training. AI200 and AI250 will ship in liquid-cooled, rack-scale configurations designed to operate as a single logical system. Qualcomm is leaning into that constraint with a redesigned memory subsystem and high-capacity cards supporting up to 768 GB of onboard memoryโ€”positioning that as a differentiator versus current GPU offerings.
Snap has opened its first open-prompt AI image Lens, Imagine, to all U.S. users, signaling a new phase in mainstream generative experiences inside the camera. Imagine Lens lets users write a short prompt and instantly transform a selfie or create an image from scratch, then share it in chats, Stories, or off-platform. The capability was previously limited to Lens+ and Snapchat Platinum subscribers. Camera-native generative features at social scale change traffic patterns, compute placement, and safety obligations for platforms and networks. Provenance standards such as C2PA content credentials are becoming table stakes for enterprise integrations and advertiser trust.
Unlike metaverse-era headsets that leaned on entertainment and novelty, Galaxy XR makes Googleโ€™s Gemini the front door to the interface. In demos, Gemini orchestrated windows in a spatial workspace, answered context-aware questions, and invoked creative tools like Veo for AI-generated video. That tight AI integration is the strategic wedge: Samsung and Google position XR as a bridge to slim, everyday AI glasses developed with eyewear brands Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. The message to developers and enterprises is clearโ€”design for multimodal AI agents first; the form factor will shrink later.
Appleโ€™s new M5 chip is a material step in local AI compute that will ripple into enterprise IT, developer tooling, and edge networking strategies. M5 is built on a thirdโ€‘generation 3โ€‘nanometer process and reworks Appleโ€™s GPU as the center of gravity for AI. The 10โ€‘core GPU adds a dedicated Neural Accelerator in every core, pushing peak GPU compute for AI to more than four times M4. Unified memory bandwidth jumps to 153 GB/s, and configurations with up to 32 GB allow more and larger models to remain entirely on device. Onโ€‘device inference is moving from niceโ€‘toโ€‘have to default, driven by privacy, latency, and cost.
Qualcomm is acquiring Arduino to anchor an end-to-end developer funnel from hobbyist prototypes to commercial robots and industrial IoT systems. As part of the announcement, Arduino introduced the Uno Q, a new board priced around $45โ€“$55 featuring Qualcommโ€™s Dragonwing QRB2210 processor that runs Linux alongside Arduino tooling and supports vision workloads. By meeting developers at the prototyping bench and offering an upgrade path to production-grade SoCs and modules, Qualcomm aims to convert experimentation into long-term silicon design wins. The Arduino tie-up broadens access to Qualcomm compute for small teams while reinforcing an ecosystem play that spans on-device AI, connectivity, and lifecycle operations at the edge.
HUMAIN, a Saudi PIF-backed AI company, introduced Horizon Pro, an โ€œagentic AIโ€ PC built on Qualcommโ€™s Snapdragon X Elite, positioning it as a new class of Windows laptop where on-device AI drives workflows, decisions, and user interaction. At Qualcommโ€™s Snapdragon Summit in Maui, HUMAIN CEO Tareq Amin unveiled the Horizon Pro PC and the companyโ€™s agentic software layer, Humain One, which runs on top of Windows 11 and is slated for formal launch at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh.
Verizon has launched a 6G Innovation Forum to accelerate research, trials, and standards alignment for the next generation of wireless. The forum convenes major RAN suppliers, including Ericsson, Samsung Electronics, and Nokia – alongside platform and device ecosystem players such as Meta and Qualcomm Technologies. The stated goal is an open, diversified, and resilient 6G ecosystem with global alignment from the outset. Verizon will back the forum with hands-on environments, starting with a dedicated 6G Lab in Los Angeles. Early priorities include testing new spectrum bands and bandwidths, and validating interoperability with mainstream standards bodies.
The global wearables market has more than doubled since 2021 and is entering a new cycle driven by AI-enabled, gesture-first devices. After a post-pandemic correction, volumes are stabilizing as value rises, helped by richer sensing, better compute and broader use cases. The next leg of growth centers on โ€œintent-basedโ€ interactionโ€”reading minute muscle or motion signals to control devices without touching a screen or speaking a command. The appeal is clear: faster command throughput, fewer errors in noisy environments, and safer operation in motion or sterile settings.
Gartnerโ€™s latest outlook points to global AI spend hitting roughly $1.5 trillion in 2025 and exceeding $2 trillion in 2026, signaling a multi-year investment cycle that will reshape infrastructure, devices, and networks. This is not a short-lived hype curve; it is a capital plan. Hyperscalers are pouring money into data centers built around AI-optimized servers and accelerators, while device makers push on-device AI into smartphones and PCs at scale. For telecom and enterprise IT leaders, the message is clear: capacity, latency, and data gravity will dictate where value lands. Spending is broad-based. AI services and software are growing fast, but the heavy lift is in hardware and cloud infrastructure.
The launch includes a hardened 5G smartphone and a portable, secure radio platform built to form and extend tactical networks in austere environments. The Mission-Safe Phone and the upgraded Banshee 5G Tactical Radio signal that 3GPP-based private wireless is mature enough for deployed operations, not just demonstrations. The Banshee refresh integrates 5G connectivity into a rugged, portable โ€œnetwork in a boxโ€ designed for fast setup, hardening, and easy transport. By pairing a purpose-built handset with a ruggedized, rapidly deployable radio hub, Nokia is selling an interoperable stack instead of point products.
BMW and Qualcomm have introduced the Snapdragon Ride Pilot, a jointly developed AI-powered automated driving system, debuting in the new BMW iX3. The system uses a Snapdragon Ride system-on-chip and features an advanced automated driving software stack with scalable Level 2+ capabilities. Validated in over 60 countries and targeting 100+ by 2026, the ADAS platform supports 360-degree perception, context-aware driving, and cloud-based updates, and is now available globally to automakers and Tier-1 suppliers.

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