Qualcomm is moving decisively beyond smartphone semiconductors into the industrial AI and robotics market. At the “Qualcomm Dragonwing IoT Day” held on the 31st at The Grand Lotte Seoul in Sogong-dong, Seoul, approximately 500 representatives from major South Korean customers and partners gathered to share on-device AI technology applications across industrial settings.
The event marked a significant expansion from last year’s “Qualcomm IoT Partner & Tech Day.” Major South Korean companies including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor, SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus attended in force. Key agenda items included industrial automation, robotics, smart home and smart appliances, agentic AI, Arduino, Edge Impulse, and industrial cameras.
Dragonwing is Qualcomm’s B2B platform spanning industrial and embedded IoT, networking, and cellular infrastructure. It has become a core pillar for extending the low-power computing, on-device AI, and connectivity technologies accumulated in mobile into industrial environments. Dragonwing has already been integrated into Samsung Electronics’ “Bespoke AI Steam” robot vacuum.
At the event, Qualcomm unveiled the “Dragonwing IQ10 Robotics Reference Design” supporting high-performance on-device AI and cognitive/control capabilities, the “Arduino VENTUNO Q” powered by the IQ8, and an AI media station based on the Dragonwing Q8 series. Technical sessions also introduced developer solutions including “Qualcomm Linux 2.0,” the “Qualcomm Intelligent Robotics Product SDK (QIRP SDK),” and “Qualcomm AI Workflow” for IoT and robotics applications.
Qualcomm and 10 partners presented a total of 16 demonstrations on-site. Partner presentation sessions featured Hyundai Motor’s Robotics Lab, SST, Integrit, Ditec, Point Mobile, Access Lab, and Advantech.
SST exhibited a QCS8550-based booster robot and a QCS9075-based quadruped robot, while Integrit demonstrated LLM (large language model) and vision AI along with on-device VLA (vision-language-action) technology. Advantech showcased industrial vision inspection, VLM (vision-language model) capabilities, and an industrial drone control module. Ditec unveiled QCS6490-based pothole detection and industrial safety AI technology.
Qualcomm’s core emphasis is on a distributed architecture that does not rely solely on the cloud for AI computation but extends processing to devices and the edge. The company’s assessment is that on-device and edge AI—where AI processing happens at the point of use—is becoming increasingly critical in fields like industrial robots and cameras that demand real-time responsiveness and power efficiency.
Kwon Oh-hyung, Qualcomm’s APAC president, said, “To realize the potential of agentic AI, intelligence must be seamlessly connected and operational across devices, edge, and cloud.” He added, “Building on our broad Dragonwing product portfolio and global ecosystem, Qualcomm will continue to create more IoT and robotics industry innovation cases together with South Korean customers and partners.”
Key competitors to Dragonwing include Nvidia’s Jetson platform and on-device AI semiconductors developed by startups. Through this event, Qualcomm made clear its strategy to strengthen its ecosystem with major South Korean manufacturers and telecom operators while expanding its presence in the industrial AI market.