Qualcomm predicts its PC CPUs will catch up to AMD's revenue and share by 2029

Thanks to the first wave of Copilot+ PCs from Microsoft and its partners featuring Qualcomm's Snapdragon X hardware, it's been a big year for Windows on Arm devices. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon expects big things from the company's expansion into new markets, with an additional $22 billion per year by 2029.

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$4 billion of that new revenue would come from PC chips, Qualcomm Arm-based Snapdragon chips found in Windows laptops, mini PCs, or even desktops. This is a bold prediction because it would put the company's PC chip revenue close to AMD's consumer-based Ryzen business, which brings in 4-5 billion annually.

If Qualcomm manages to meet this expectation, it would be a remarkable achievement because its PC business is still relatively new. And by that, we mean brand-new because its Snapdragon X chips for Windows and Copilot+ PCs launched this year - starting from basically 0% market share.

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″We have been on this trajectory realizing that the technologies we have developed over the many years can be very relevant to a number of different industries beyond mobile," Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said, adding that in addition to PCs, Qualcomm chips are also being developed for the automotive industry and even headsets.

Interestingly, he cites Apple's decision to move from Intel chips to its own processors for Macs as an opportunity to enter the PC market. "The ecosystem did not have confidence in the existing players to deliver a solution," Amon adds, hinting that relying on Intel and AMD for x86 chip performance and efficiency led to the arrival of Snapdragon X chips for Copilot+ PCs running Windows.

It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out, as Qualcomm's entry into the PC market with Arm-based processors could see it take market share from both Intel and AMD or lead to new customers (and mobile users) adopting Windows on Arm devices with Qualcomm hardware. Perhaps it will be a mixture of both. Time will tell.