Qualcomm CEO says robotics technology is expected to achieve scale within two years

Cristiano Amon, CEO of U.S. chip giant Qualcomm, said in an interview on Monday local time that as the company continues to expand its business areas beyond smartphones, robotics will become a "bigger opportunity" in the next two years.

In January this year, Qualcomm launched a robot processor called Dragonwing, aiming to create a chipset that can run on multiple robot platforms. The company's strategy is similar to its approach in smartphones, where its Snapdragon processors have become a key chip used by many electronics companies.

"I think robotics will be scalable in the next two years," Amon said. "I think within two years, this will be a bigger opportunity." He made the above statement in response to a question about when robotics could become an important business for Qualcomm.

There are many different types of robots, from those focused on industrial applications (such as robotic arms) to humanoid robots (the type being developed by Tesla and numerous Chinese companies).

There are various predictions about the size of the robotics market. McKinsey expects the market for general-purpose robots to reach $370 billion by 2040, while analysts at RBC Capital Markets predict the total global addressable market for humanoid robots will reach $9 trillion by 2050.

Robots require processors and a lot of difficult engineering to move. But advances in artificial intelligence models have also led to growing optimism about robotics. These models are designed to power robots so they can understand the world around them and act accordingly. Robots are often lumped into the category of physical artificial intelligence.

"People say that robotics alone could be a trillion-dollar opportunity in terms of market size...The reality is we're seeing now that robots have become more useful because of physical artificial intelligence," Amon said.