Qualcomm: 6G is not an isolated generational upgrade; it will build an intelligent foundation for the AI era.

The just-concluded year 2025 is widely regarded within the industry as the “Year of 6G Standardization.” The industry has reached a consensus that 6G not only represents a linear enhancement of communication system capabilities but will also become a collaborative technological innovation platform deeply integrated with AI. Communication networks are transitioning from “data pipelines” to “intelligent foundations,” supporting individual intelligent agents, embodied intelligence, and the digital upgrade of countless industries, becoming a vital infrastructure in the AI era.

It has been learned that on the eve of the 2026 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Qualcomm released a series of clear signals regarding 6G experience, system capabilities, and key technological pathways. Its ongoing investments and phased achievements in the 6G direction are gradually emerging.

Before the comprehensive start of 6G standardization, Qualcomm has taken the lead in multiple frontier technology fields, conducting systematic investments and explorations, guiding industry research and development, and promoting standard setting. Qualcomm aims to develop 6G into an end-to-end system—covering terminal devices, networks, and computing infrastructure—enabling AI to operate in the most suitable positions within the system, achieving a collaborative architecture of “cloud computing advantages, stable network support, and terminal intelligence autonomy.”

In terms of foundational technology, facing higher demands from AI agents for network capacity, efficiency, and determinism, Qualcomm has conducted tests supporting ultra-massive MIMO for 6G to support new wide-area capacity, providing feasible paths for operators to reduce costs and accelerate commercialization. Meanwhile, in the AI collaboration direction, Qualcomm and Nokia Bell Labs have completed wireless AI interoperability verification, enabling terminal and cloud-based AI training and collaborative operation based on shared data or models.

In scene exploration, Qualcomm has pre-deployed edge AI capabilities across multiple terminal categories such as smartphones, AI PCs, automobiles, robots, wearables, and XR devices, laying the foundation for pre-commercial 6G terminals and promoting the industry to welcome 6G pre-commercial terminals by 2028. Qualcomm has also partnered with ecosystem collaborators to showcase several forward-looking applications, focusing on network slicing based on digital twins and generative AI, using AI to improve wireless communication efficiency, and low-altitude drone wireless sensing.

One week before MWC, Qualcomm announced that it would showcase its leadership in 6G technology during the exhibition. On one hand, focusing on experience and services, Qualcomm will demonstrate the natural, rapid, and reliable cross-terminal experience brought by the integration of 6G and AI, as well as a 6G, sensing, and distributed intelligence fusion platform to help operators provide layered new services. On the other hand, focusing on technological development, Qualcomm will showcase the evolution of 6G systems from concept to prototype, supporting multi-vendor RF calibration and AI-enabled innovations, as well as the latest progress in millimeter-wave NTN, scalable and high-fidelity radio digital twins.

From edge to cloud, from terminal to network, Qualcomm is attempting to build a “smart foundation” for 6G in the AI era through its long-term accumulation in connectivity, computing, and AI fields. As the technological pathways become clearer, the industry will see that 6G is not an isolated generational upgrade but a systemic reconfiguration centered around AI-native communication systems.