Qualcomm CEO warns: Don't predict the AI winners as yet, there are…

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has cautioned against making early predictions about which companies will dominate the artificial intelligence landscape, stating "everybody's playing to win" but emphasizing it's too early to identify clear victors.

Speaking at the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh on October 27, Amon told attendees that "it's hard right now to declare who the winners are," while acknowledging that AI's long-term potential may be larger than current expectations suggest. He predicted the technology sector will soon become intensely competitive as the market matures.

AI's promise mirrors dotcom boom, but scale could be bigger

Drawing parallels to the internet revolution, Amon noted that today's web is vastly larger than anyone imagined 25 years ago, according to Fortune.

"Who we expected to be the winners in the early days—it changed," he said. "When you think about AI in the long term, it is going to be massive, and it's probably underestimated."The Qualcomm chief said companies with architectures capable of handling the efficiency demands of AI deployment will be "very well positioned" for the upcoming competition, calling AI a "massive opportunity" despite the challenges ahead.

Altman, Zuckerberg, and others echoes the same sentiment but big tech continues to pour in billions

His comments come as industry leaders increasingly voice concerns about an AI bubble. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told The Verge in August that investors appear "overexcited" about AI, comparing the current frenzy to the dotcom bubble. "When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth," Altman said.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg echoed similar concerns in September, telling the Access podcast that based on past infrastructure buildouts, "there's definitely a possibility" of a bubble collapse.

However, he maintained that missing AI's potential represents a greater risk than overinvestment.Other prominent figures, including former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, have warned the current cycle resembles 1998-1999 conditions before the dotcom crash. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has described the AI surge as an "industrial bubble" while maintaining long-term confidence in the technology's value.Despite these warnings, major tech companies continue massive AI investments, with the largest US firms spending over $155 billion on AI development in 2025 alone.