Cristiano Amon is the new CEO of Qualcomm. He has big plans to compete with Apple in laptop performance. This is thanks to ex-Apple employees Qualcomm hired when it acquired Nuvia earlier in the year. According to Amon, Qualcomm could be the best processor in the world. This would require a chip that is better than Apple's M1.Amon, before assuming his new position as CEO, was the head of Qualcomm's semiconductor division. He was also responsible for Nuvia's $1.4 billion acquisition. Three former Apple engineers, who were experts in chip design and worked with Apple's A-series SOCs, founded the startup. Those three founders joined Qualcomm and it is now clear that they will be focusing on chips for consumer computers. However, Reuters reports that the company would not turn down the opportunity to license its technology to data centers. Qualcomm plans to begin selling Arm laptop chips powered by Nuvias designs next year.Apple has not added 5G or any other cellular compatibility to its M1 Macs.Amon hopes to also use the company's expertise in 5G chips and smartphone processing to improve laptop experiences by integrating 5G connectivity into its laptop-focused processors. Apple has not yet added 5G or any other cellular compatibility to its M1 Macs despite some demand (though its M1-powered iPad Pro does have a 5G option).It is clear that Qualcomm needs to work hard if it wants to be a major player in laptop powering like the smartphone market. Although Microsoft's Surface Pro X does feature Qualcomm-designed chips (which was on display at the Windows 11 Event), there isn't a large number of Windows PCs that have Qualcomm inside. It is also unlikely that Intel will allow Arm to take over the laptop market without a fight. The company is currently working on hybrid CPUs, which, like Arm, combine high-power cores with efficiency-focused cores to improve battery life and provide greater battery life. However, they use an x86 architecture.Amon spoke to Reuters also about China's sanctions and the opportunities it presents, as well as the struggles of the company to be a household name such Intel and AMD.
