Qualcomm Guns for 6G by 2029, Drops Wi-Fi 8 Chip
Qualcomm announces a coalition targeting 2029 for 6G and unveils its FastConnect 8800 Wi-Fi 8 chip with double the speed of Wi-Fi 7.
Qualcomm came swinging at Mobile World Congress with a pair of major networking announcements. The chipmaker has assembled a "coalition" with the explicit goal of launching 6G connectivity by 2029.
That's ambitious, but Qualcomm isn't waiting around on the Wi-Fi side either. The company unveiled the FastConnect 8800, a next-gen network interface controller it's calling "AI-native" and Wi-Fi 8-ready. The headline stat: it doubles peak speeds compared to Wi-Fi 7.
The AI-native branding signals Qualcomm is baking machine learning capabilities directly into its networking silicon — a move that aligns with the industry's broader push to make every chip AI-aware.
Between a concrete 6G timeline and a Wi-Fi 8 chip already in the pipeline, Qualcomm is clearly betting that owning the connectivity stack is just as important as owning the processor.