The new chip, called Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2, will pave the way for new features that are currently unavailable directly in portable devices such as headphones, smart glasses and speakers. Qualcomm representatives announced the new chip at the company's annual Snapdragon Summit, hosted here Sept. 21-24.
Beyond earbuds, company representatives want to integrate the chip into other "hearables," such as over-ear headphones, open-ear audio devices, audio glasses, camera buds (headphones that use tiny built-in cameras) and hearing devices, as well as "future personal AI wearables," like pendants or clips.
Adaptive and selective active noise cancellation also means users can filter out audio on command. For example, it allows listeners to hear key sounds, such as emergency sirens, while walking through a city or highlight people's voices during a conversation, while blocking out everything else. This noise cancellation is achieved through standard machine learning algorithms, rather than transformer-based large language models that power AI systems like ChatGPT.
The new chip enables devices to feature an AI assistant that can engage in two-way conversations. (Image credit: Keumars Afifi-Sabet/Live Science)
Qualcomm representatives also highlighted the chip's "always-on intelligence," in which an on-device eNPU AI accelerator component powers virtual assistants, transcription and translation, as well as the building of "contextual awareness." With contextual awareness, the system would constantly monitor the user's environment to harvest data to add to a personal profile, which representatives say helps it answer future queries.
There's no information yet about the likely impact of these features on battery life compared with conventional non-AI devices. But Qualcomm representatives noted that device makers will no longer need to choose between audio quality, AI features and battery life. That said, Andrew Laister, staff product manager at Qualcomm, added in a media Q&A session that there's likely to be an impact on how a user experiences battery drain. That's because, unlike conventional earbuds that are used sporadically for calls and music playback, these new devices are designed to be used continuously.
How does Qualcomm's new AI chip compare with similar technologies?
Devising smart audio features and getting them to work in real devices have also been at the heart of several recent research projects. For example, in 2024, University of Washington scientists embedded a computing system into off-the-shelf earbuds to zero in on individuals speaking in noisy environments while blocking all background noise.
Other companies have explored building new kinds of digital audio platforms for headphones. Three years ago, xMEMS unveiled Cypress, an audio chip that generates ultrasonic sound using the "piezoelectric effect," in which a material moves when a current is applied to it. Although the chip entered "mass-production readiness" in September 2025, consumer devices fitted with the platform have yet to be announced.
It's like the first smartphone moment with the Play Store.
Qualcomm's new chip is a spiritual successor to the 3-year-old Snapdragon S7 Gen 1 system, which featured in devices such as the Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro series. The previous chip also used AI for conventional active noise cancellation, audio customization and lossless audio streaming while connecting to devices via micropower Wi-Fi.
A crucial aspect of the new system is its capacity to store apps on the device itself in the chip's onboard memory. Because the device will have its own IP address, it can communicate with servers using the https protocol, without needing to go through another phone or computer.
Related storiesLaister told journalists in the Q&A session that the company is currently scoping out whether the device could run two apps in RAM (short-term memory) at once — an AI agent and an audio streaming platform, for example — while keeping the rest in flash memory (long-term storage). He added they had to overcome a communication hurdle with micropower Wi-Fi foron the launch of the previous chip (specifically, that its power consumption is on a par with Bluetooth's). Now, he said the communication hurdle is actually being able to run apps on the device.
No details were available on when the system is likely to be found in devices, but representatives said Qualcomm is working with other companies, including HP and Bose, to explore headphones and speakers that feature the chipset.
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