Qualcomm stock is soaring today as rumblings of an OpenAI smartphone deal emerge. Here’s what’s happening

The deal would see Qualcomm CPUs powering a potential Open AI smartphone—and would be a further sign that AI may shift from being primarily GPU-powered to CPU-powered. Here’s what you need to know. Will the CPU replace the GPU in the AI space? Currently, the most important computing component underpinning the AI era is the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Traditionally, this was a dedicated processor designed to render 3D graphics and video, and it was especially critical in the gaming sector of the computer industry. But in the AI era, the processing power of GPUs has made them a perfect tool for high-performance tasks like training and running large language models (LLMs), which are the backbone of chatbots. The importance of GPUs in AI development has made GPU king Nvidia the most valuable company on the planet. But in the near future, the AI industry will go through a shift. The role of CPUs is expected to become even more important in data centers, as CPUs become more advanced and capable. This is good news for CPU makers like Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC), whose stock soared last week, driven primarily by data center and AI (DCAI) revenue growth. This shift toward the growing importance of CPUs in the AI space is also likely to accelerate, as more advanced CPUs enable more AI models to run locally on personal devices like smartphones, freeing LLMs from the power-hungry GPUs packed into today’s data centers. Once that happens, smartphone makers will likely be lining up to get their hands on the most capable AI CPUs on the market—and that is something Qualcomm may soon benefit heavily from. OpenAI’s rumored smartphone may have a Qualcomm chip inside For years, ChatGPT maker OpenAI has been rumored to be working on a physical device intended to be the primary wa