3nm Qualcomm Snapdragon Cockpit Elite & Snapdragon Ride Elite '26?
Qualcomm, a fabless company that designs chips but outsources their production, employs around 22,000 people in India, roughly 60% of its global workforce. Duggal noted that the company has a local team dedicated to working with Indian carmakers.The chipmaker is focusing heavily on the automotive market, especially for electric vehicles, and already works with major car manufacturers such as Tata Motors, Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai.
Its Snapdragon Elite platform supports telematics, infotainment and driver assistance technologies, including Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).According to Duggal, about a dozen vehicles are expected to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite systems-on-chip by 2026. These were announced in October 2024 and delivered to customers in early 2025.
PS
Copilot:
As of 2025, Qualcomm has not publicly disclosed the exact semiconductor node size for its Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite systems-on-chip (SoCs). However, based on available information and industry trends, here’s a reasoned estimate:
?? Likely Node Size by 2026
- Estimated Node: 3nm or 4nm
- Reasoning:
- These platforms are powered by Qualcomm’s second-generation Oryon CPU, which is also used in the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.
- The Snapdragon 8 Elite is expected to be fabricated on TSMC’s N4P or N3E process, depending on the timeline and yield maturity.
- Automotive-grade SoCs typically lag mobile SoCs by one generation due to extended validation cycles, but Qualcomm is pushing centralized compute and AI acceleration aggressively for software-defined vehicles.
- Given sampling begins in 2025, production SoCs in vehicles by 2026 could realistically be on TSMC N4P (4nm) or Samsung SF4E, with a possible shift to 3nm-class nodes if reliability and cost align.
?? Performance Targets
- CPU: 3× performance boost over previous generation
- AI/NPU: 12× performance increase
- GPU: 3× rendering uplift
- Sensor Support: Up to 40 multimodal sensors and 20 high-res cameras
- Display: Up to 16 high-resolution displays
These specs imply a cutting-edge node to meet power efficiency and thermal constraints in automotive environments.
Would you like a breakdown of which foundry (TSMC vs Samsung) is more likely to win the tape-out for these platforms?
PS
While EUV yield WAGs varies, most seem to indicate nice ramp.
So much in the way of tailwinds.
:-)
ASML
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