Qualcomm is expanding the reach of its computing and on-device AI technologies beyond smartphones and into robotics, industrial equipment and smart devices, positioning its Dragonwing platform as a key pillar of its growing B2B business.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. hosted the “Qualcomm Dragonwing IoT Day” in Seoul on Aug. 31, bringing together around 500 representatives from major customers and partners, including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor, SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus.

The event highlighted how Qualcomm is building a broader industrial AI ecosystem around Dragonwing, its B2B platform spanning industrial and embedded IoT, networking and cellular infrastructure.

Expanded from last year’s Qualcomm IoT Partner & Tech Day, this year’s gathering focused on industrial automation, robotics, smart home and appliances, agentic AI, Arduino, Edge Impulse and industrial cameras, with particular attention to real-world applications of AI at the edge.

Rather than presenting Dragonwing simply as a portfolio of processors, Qualcomm emphasized an integrated platform strategy combining computing, connectivity, on-device AI, software tools and a growing network of technology partners.

From smartphones to industrial AI

Dragonwing represents an important expansion of Qualcomm’s technology footprint. The platform combines high-performance, power-efficient computing with on-device AI and connectivity technologies to address the speed, scalability and reliability requirements of industrial environments.

The strategy comes as AI workloads increasingly move beyond centralized cloud infrastructure toward devices and the edge.

For applications such as robotics, machine vision and industrial safety, processing data locally can enable faster response times while reducing dependence on continuous cloud connectivity. Power efficiency and operating costs are also becoming increasingly important as AI is deployed across larger numbers of connected devices.

At the event, Qualcomm introduced technologies designed to make that transition easier for developers, including Qualcomm Linux 2.0, the Qualcomm Intelligent Robotics Product (QIRP) SDK and Qualcomm AI Workflow.

By combining hardware capabilities with software and development tools, Qualcomm aims to shorten the path from AI development to commercial deployment across a wide range of industrial devices.

16 demos highlight commercialization potential

Qualcomm and 10 partner companies presented a total of 16 demonstrations, illustrating how the Dragonwing ecosystem is already being applied across robotics, vision AI and other industrial applications.

Qualcomm showcased the Dragonwing IQ10 Robotics Reference Design, designed to support high-performance on-device AI, advanced perception and precise control. Other demonstrations included the Arduino VENTUNO Q powered by IQ8, an AI Media Station based on the Dragonwing Q8 Series, real-time object recognition using the Edge Impulse platform and Always-On Vision technology.

Partner demonstrations further broadened the range of applications.

Point Mobile demonstrated an integrated RFID solution and industrial handheld devices powered by Qualcomm on-device AI chipsets, while Advantech presented industrial vision inspection, a vision-language model developed in collaboration with Zetic AI and an industrial drone control module.

SST showcased a booster robot based on the Dragonwing QCS8550, an AI home hub powered by the Dragonwing Q-8750 and a quadruped robot based on the Dragonwing QCS9075.

D-TEG demonstrated AI technologies for blind-spot detection, pothole detection and industrial safety using a Dragonwing QCS6490-based device.

Other demonstrations included Innodisk’s real-time vision-language model technology, Aetina’s agentic AI solution, Xslab’s Phi-4 live demo, Integrit’s LLM and vision AI technologies as well as an on-device vision-language-action model, Namuga’s real-time stereo depth vision and Wiseplus’ “Orbit Eye” multi-channel real-time video analytics solution for industrial edge AI.

The breadth of the demonstrations underscored Qualcomm’s ambition to establish Dragonwing as a common technology foundation across diverse AI applications, ranging from robotic perception and action to industrial video analytics, smart home hubs and safety systems.

Korean partners become key part of Dragonwing ecosystem

The event also featured presentations from Hyundai Motor’s Robotics LAB, SST, Integrit, D-TEG, Point Mobile, Xslab, Advantech, Innodisk, Aetina and Wiseplus, which shared commercialization strategies and use cases developed within the Qualcomm ecosystem.

The participation of major Korean manufacturers, telecom operators and specialized AI and robotics companies reflects the importance of partnerships in Qualcomm’s industrial AI strategy.

Unlike traditional semiconductor markets, industrial AI increasingly requires close integration among processors, operating systems, AI models, sensors, development environments and end products. Building a broad developer and partner ecosystem could therefore become as important as chip performance itself.

Oh Hyung Kwon, President of Qualcomm APAC, said realizing the potential of agentic AI requires intelligence to operate seamlessly across devices, edge infrastructure and the cloud.

“Qualcomm helps enterprises achieve the optimal balance among performance, cost and power efficiency through platform-based AI workload optimization spanning devices, edge and cloud,” Kwon said.

He added that Qualcomm plans to work with Korean customers and partners to create more innovation cases across the IoT and robotics industries by leveraging its broad Dragonwing portfolio and global ecosystem.

For Qualcomm, Dragonwing represents more than an extension of its existing semiconductor portfolio. It is emerging as a strategic B2B growth platform that brings the company’s strengths in high-performance, low-power computing, connectivity and on-device AI into industrial markets.

The Dragonwing IoT Day in Seoul demonstrated that this expansion is increasingly being built around real products and applications developed with partners — positioning Korea as an important market and ecosystem for Qualcomm’s push into the next phase of edge AI and robotics.