Yesterday the company showed the hardware behind the hype. The new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for mobiles and Snapdragon X2 Elite for PCs were wheeled out, with a cast of industry hangers-on nodding enthusiastically from the sidelines.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is being punted as the fastest mobile system-on-a-chip, while the X2 Elite Extreme for PCs supposedly redefines high-end Windows machines with its 18-core CPU and doubled-up AI NPU grunt. Qualcomm insists the kit can juggle “agentic AI” workloads, which sounds like marketing speak for “it runs fast enough for Photoshop and spreadsheets.”

Qualcomm, group general manager Alex Katouzian said: “We’re helping change how people interact with devices, making them more intuitive, more human, and we’re seeing real traction across markets from wearables, to PCs, to XR.”

He added: “It’s the fastest mobile CPU in the world… it’s the first time you’re seeing this kind of speed on smartphones.”

Qualcomm SVP Kedar Kondap went further, announcing: “It’s not just a chip; it’s a revolution.” He promised better battery life and the end of performance compromises, though the phrase has been used so often in the past it could be stitched into a banner and hauled out whenever a new processor appears.

Microsoft’s Steven Bathiche chipped in with claims that Redmond has a 14 billion parameter model running on Snapdragon kit that can “even outperform the most famous cloud models.”

Samsung COO Won-Joon Choi reminded everyone that Qualcomm and Samsung have been reshaping how punters communicate for decades, and will soon inject Galaxy AI into 400 million devices.

Google’s Android chief Sameer Samat said the next platform shift is all about personal AI, while Asus, HP, Razer and Epic all queued up to say how chuffed they were with Qualcomm’s new silicon.

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen popped up too, gushing about how creativity will now be “democratised.”

Cristiano Amon himself wrapped up the spectacle with: “I never met a person who said, I don’t want a processor that’s this fast.” He reckons the punters will now actually “feel the value.”

No word on when punters will see actual devices running the gear, but expect a steady drip of press releases and marketing fluff until one does.