Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 With AI and Camera Support for Next-Generation Earbuds

Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 chipset at its annual Snapdragon Summit in Maui on September 23, 2026, targeting a new class of AI-powered earbuds, headphones, and audio glasses that can process voice commands locally and even interpret visual context. The platform delivers twice the on-device AI performance of its predecessor while cutting power consumption by 40 percent and reducing the chipset's physical footprint by 30 percent, addressing key challenges in deploying computationally intensive AI on battery-constrained wearables.