For AI to be genuinely useful in the real world, it needs to escape the screen and engage with the physical world. That's the idea behind the booming AI wearables market, and Qualcomm's newest platform is positioning itself as the catalyst for the next big leap forward.

Kicking off MWC on Monday, Qualcomm launched its new Snapdragon Wear Elite platform designed to power AI wearables, including pins, watches, earbuds, pendants, and glasses. The Wear Elite platform addresses primary AI wearable needs: low-power, always-on availability and on-device AI processing for low latency and user privacy.

A key aspect of achieving those goals is the inclusion of the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU architecture, which supports up to two billion‑parameter models locally on-device. Other spec highlights include:

• Improved performance: 5x single-core CPU performance improvement and up to 7x faster GPU in max FPS performance.
• Improved power and charging: multi-day battery life, 30% longer day of use compared to the previous generations, and rapid charging, powering up to 50% in 10 minutes.
• Multi-mode connectivity support that integrates: 5G RedCap, Micro‑Power Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth 6.0, UWB, GNSS, and NB‑NTN.

The chipset is the first to work across WearOS by Google, Android, and Linux. Global partners supporting the platform include Google, Motorola, and Samsung. Furthermore, the first Snapdragon Wear Elite-powered devices will be available in the next few months, according to Qualcomm.

The company said the Wear Elite platform is part of Qualcomm’s broader vision for building an ecosystem of wearable devices where multimodal AI agents are tailored to users, understanding their context and anticipating their needs.

Our Deeper View

While the AI wearables race has already started, it's about to get a lot more intense in 2026. Meta's Ray-Bans, which also use Qualcomm chips, sold millions of units in the past year alone. Now nearly every major tech company is following suit. Google and Samsung have an imminent smartglasses launch that looks likely to run on Qualcomm’s new platform. Meanwhile, Apple is rumored to be developing its own glasses and AI wearables, and Motorola previewed Project Maxwell at CES, a pin that takes agentic actions based on what it sees. But these devices desperately need substantial processing power and on-device AI capabilities in a tiny, battery-constrained package. So step-changes like the new Qualcomm chips hold promise that the next wave of 2026 devices will be able to pack in new capabilities.

Disclosure: Qualcomm covered Sabrina Ortiz’s travel and accommodations to attend MWC. Qualcomm had no editorial input or review of this article.