Qualcomm aims to make everything smart with these new processors
Published in Business News
Qualcomm debuted two new processors this month, its latest step toward integrating intelligence into seemingly everything.
The Q-2390 and IQ-2390, which were unveiled Sept. 1, fall under the company’s Internet of Things, or IoT, business — one of Qualcomm’s fastest-growing sectors — building hardware and software that make things like robots, buildings, cameras and doorbells “smart.”
The Q-2390 is aimed at commercial and consumer IoT devices — things like retail kiosks, smart appliances, access control systems, home robots and enterprise terminals.
The IQ-2390 targets industrial applications — machine vision, building automation, energy management and industrial controllers.
Casey Laris, chief technology officer of San Diego robotics company Tactus AI, discussed his company’s demand for this kind of computing power to run its humanoid lab assistant, named Elsie.
“The Dragonwing chips should, in theory, be a nice fit for touch, fingers, joints — humanoid sensing in general, really,” Laris said. “The coming wave of physical AI relies on cost-effective but still reliable ways for the robot software to know what’s happening in the real world.”
That’s Qualcomm’s specialty, as the San Diego chipmaker has made billions of dollars creating low-power processors for smartphones. But after Apple cut ties, Qualcomm has moved to diversify its chipmaking strategy, which notably includes its Dragonwing IoT line.
In the third quarter of 2026, IoT revenue reached $1.83 billion, a 9% increase year-over-year.
“We have tremendous expertise in high performance and low power,” Qualcomm Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Akash Palkhiwala said at a Goldman Sachs investor summit in San Francisco last week.
©2026 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.











Comments