Qualcomm’s CIO Places Big Bets on AI

Qualcomm’s CIO Atilla Tinic is making big bets on AI to support the chip company’s diversification push. Tinic, who previously worked at EchoStar, saw the company’s ambitious plan to become the US’s fourth major carrier under its Dish brand. However, the plan didn’t quite pan out as envisioned. Tinic joined Qualcomm in February 2025 and was drawn to the company’s efforts to diversify its business away from the volatile smartphone market. Qualcomm has been working on new AI accelerator chips to better compete with Nvidia and AMD. The company has also been reportedly working with OpenAI on a new smartphone AI chip. Tinic created centralized data and AI teams and supported the wide deployment of AI tools across the company. He believes that AI is crucial to Qualcomm’s future growth and will continue to make big bets on the technology. Tinic assesses progress through three impact metrics: volume, velocity, and quality. He wants to repurpose people for high-value tasks that help the business grow, rather than administrative tasks. Qualcomm has also been monitoring its AI token spend, and Tinic has established token limits to ensure that employees are using AI tools efficiently.