NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 24, 2026--
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM):
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Highlights:
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced the expansion of its strategic relationship with Hugging Face to advance open, developer-driven artificial intelligence (AI) from devices to cloud infrastructure. This collaboration is intended to unite Qualcomm Technologies’ industry-leading device to data center platforms with Hugging Face’s global AI community, model ecosystem, and developer software tools, to enable a new era of agentic AI and hybrid inference at scale.
The collaboration is designed to unlock a unified AI experience by seamlessly connecting edge devices and cloud systems powered by Qualcomm Technologies’ products. Through this effort, applications can intelligently balance performance, cost, and latency in order to deliver more powerful and accessible AI solutions for developers and enterprises worldwide.
“This engagement represents a major step forward in making advanced AI more open, scalable, and accessible,” said Cristiano Amon, President and CEO, Qualcomm Incorporated. “By combining Qualcomm’s leadership in high-performance, low-power computing with Hugging Face’s vibrant developer ecosystem, we are enabling a new generation of AI applications that seamlessly span device and cloud.”
"Increasingly the world is running on open and local models because they're more affordable than the big APIs and private by design," said Clément Delangue, Co-founder and CEO, Hugging Face. "Together with Qualcomm Technologies, using Modular software and tools, we're making it easy for our 16 million developers to run open models everywhere, from a device in your hand to a full rack in the data center, with agents that work across the compute continuum.”
The collaboration is expected to focus on three key pillars across Qualcomm, Snapdragon, Dragonwing and Dragonfly family of products, driving AI usage from Hugging Face’s 16 million developers across data center infrastructure, accelerating AI model deployment from edge devices to cloud, and enabling agentic AI orchestration on hybrid AI environments.
The first element focuses on driving open AI model usage by connecting Qualcomm Technologies’ data center infrastructure with Hugging Face’s AI storage infrastructure. Through the collaboration, Hugging Face’s storage and inference services are planned to map to high-performance, energy-efficient data center solutions powered by Qualcomm Dragonfly™ products. Further, the Hugging Face global developer ecosystem is expected to be able to deploy and scale AI workloads on data center solutions powered by Qualcomm Dragonfly products, with the goal of creating a direct path from model experimentation to production deployment of apps and agents.
The second element of the collaboration is planned to accelerate AI model deployment across devices and data center racks powered by Qualcomm Technologies products. With over 3 million open models for every task, domain and modality, Hugging Face offers ready-to-use models for every use case and industry. AI models from the Hugging Face ecosystem are planned to be onboarded on Qualcomm Technologies platforms using an Agent that handles setup, optimization and deployment, with zero manual integration work. This is intended to make it easier for developers to bring advanced AI capabilities to smartphones, PCs, wearables, industrial systems, automotive platforms, newer edge devices and data center solutions powered by Qualcomm products, with a single workflow from edge to cloud. This work is designed to simplify the developer journey, reducing time to deployment of AI applications and agents. As part of the engagement, Hugging Face will offer access to Hugging Face PRO to customers using devices or cloud systems with Qualcomm Technologies’ platforms, enabling premium storage, compute and collaboration to build with open models.
The third element enables the orchestration of Agentic AI across device and cloud environments powered by Qualcomm Technologies products. Qualcomm Technologies and Hugging Face plan to support a distributed AI framework in which intelligent agents can operate across on-device and cloud systems, dynamically orchestrating models and workflows based on performance, cost, privacy, and latency needs. Together, these efforts are intended to help developers build a more seamless hybrid AI experience, where intelligence can move fluidly across the compute continuum from edge devices to data center infrastructure. Developers will be able to access Modular’s AI software components and tools via the Hugging Face ecosystem.
About Qualcomm
Qualcomm is a global computing leader at the center of the AI era, enabling intelligence to scale from the most personal devices to large-scale infrastructure. Building on more than four decades of innovation, we develop platforms and solutions that bring together advanced AI, high-performance low power computing, and industry-leading connectivity—powering products and services used around the world. At Qualcomm, we are engineering human progress.
Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering and research and development functions and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business. Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patents are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm, Snapdragon, Qualcomm Dragonwing and Qualcomm Dragonfly are trademarks or registered trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated.
About Hugging Face
Hugging Face is the leading open platform for AI Builders, making it easy for developers to build their own AI using open source and its collaboration platform hosting millions of open models and datasets for the global AI community.
Hugging Face PRO ( hf.co/pro ) is an all-in-one subscription to discover, use, and build with AI on Hugging Face.
Qualcomm and Hugging Face Expand Relationship to Advance Open, Developer-Driven AI from Device to Cloud
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate Wednesday for the first time since 2023 in an effort to quell stubbornly-high inflation and the central bank also signaled that another rate hike could occur later this year.
The quarter-point increase lifts the Fed’s key rate to about 3.9% and, over time, could result in higher borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards. In a set of quarterly projections, the Fed also signaled that its rate-setting committee expects to hike rates a second time to 4.1%.
The move comes as Americans are already struggling with high costs for groceries, gas, and housing. Affordability has taken on a leading role in the upcoming midterm elections, just seven weeks away.
In a press conference following the Fed's announcement, Chair Kevin Warsh emphasized that the economy has shown signs of gathering speed since the central bank decided to keep rates unchanged in late July. Inflation has also remained stubbornly above the Fed's 2% target and he noted that there is little sign it is cooling.
"The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long,” Warsh said. “We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective clearly and at sufficient speed. Today the FOMC decided that this standard has not been satisfied,” he added, referring to the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, an arm of the Fed.
“Warsh’s tough talk around inflation in the post-meeting press conference suggested that he may be pushing for higher rates in meetings to come,” said Preston Caldwell, chief U.S. economist at Morningstar.
Warsh also said renewed combat between the U.S. and Iran, which has driven up gas prices, also convinced Fed officials to support rate hikes.
“There’s no hiding from hotspots around the world,” he said.
Warsh noted that other central banks are hiking interest rates, in response to global turmoil and higher gas prices. The European Central Bank raised its key rate last week, and the Bank of Japan is expected to do the same Sept. 18.
The Fed next meets in late October and most economists expect officials will keep rates unchanged then because it is just a week before the midterm elections. But Wall Street analysts now see a rate hike by December as a near certainty, according to futures prices.
Also late Wednesday, the yield, or interest rate, on the 2-year Treasury rose to 4.74% from 4.67%, another sign investors expect the Fed to potentially lift rates further.
Since taking the lead at the Fed in May, Warsh has said the Fed is firmly committed to taming inflation, and that policymakers would take their cues from the data to determine if inflation was going in the right direction.
The rate hike marks a turnaround for Warsh, who was appointed by President Donald Trump. Warsh often suggested last year when under consideration by Trump that the Fed could reduce its key rate, echoing the president’s call for lower borrowing costs.
And in April, when Warsh’s nomination was under consideration by the Senate Banking Committee, Trump said in a television interview that he would be disappointed if Warsh didn’t cut rates. On the same day, however, Warsh told the committee he did not promise Trump he would cut rates and said he would be “an independent actor” as Fed chair.
Yet the ongoing disruptions from the Iran war, which have pushed up average gas prices more than 7% from just a month ago, threaten to spread through the economy and keep broader inflation stubbornly high. An inflation report last week showed core prices, which exclude food and energy, accelerated a bit in August.
According to the Fed’s preferred measure, inflation was 3.7% in July compared with a year ago, up from 2.3% in April 2025, just before Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs. Core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy categories, was 3.3% in July, the latest data available, up from 3% just before the Iran war and far above the Fed’s target.
Fed policymakers unanimously supported the rate hike, compared with late July when the central bank kept rates steady and three officials dissented in favor of higher rates. Sixteen of the eighteen Fed policymakers who submitted growth and interest rate projections penciled in at least one further rate hike this year, with four supporting two more increases.
Earlier Wednesday, the government said retail sales jumped 1.2% in August from the previous month, a sign that consumers are still spending at healthy levels despite sentiment surveys that indicate Americans remain gloomy about the economy. Strong spending is a sign that interest rates at current levels aren’t necessarily restricting the economy and cooling inflation.
“While uncertainty remains elevated owing, in part, to geopolitical developments, domestic spending has been resilient,” the Fed said, a likely reference to ongoing consumer spending and strong investment in AI data centers by large technology companies.
Higher inflation isn’t all about gas prices. Ongoing investment in AI has driven up prices for computer chips and other electronic gear, adding to overall inflation. Tariffs may still be elevating some costs, such as appliances, which jumped in price last month.
Trump harshly criticized Warsh’s predecessor, Jerome Powell, for not cutting rates quickly enough. His Justice Department even launched a criminal investigation into Powell over brief testimony he delivered to Congress last year, though that probe was eventually dropped.
When asked Wednesday how the president might react to the rate increase, Warsh said, "I’ve got nothing for you on a discussion with the president.”
Trump again called for lower interest rates in a social media post late Wednesday, but didn't comment on the Fed's action. On Sunday, Kevin Hassett, Trump’s top economic adviser, was asked in an interview with Fox News how Trump might react to a rate hike.
“I’m sure he’s not going to be super happy about it, but he will defend the independence of Kevin Warsh above all,” Hassett said.
Warsh might also have a measure of protection from the fact that his father-in-law is Ronald Lauder, a friend of Trump’s and a billionaire donor to his campaigns.
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Kevin Warsh speaks during a news conference at the Federal Reserve in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Kevin Warsh speaks during a news conference at the Federal Reserve in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Kevin Warsh attends an observance ceremony on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
