Senior VP & Chief Marketing Officer, Qualcomm Inc
Don McGuire, Qualcomm Inc interviewed by Juliana Cobb, 72andSunny | SPORT BEACH Content Studio
Don McGuire, Qualcomm Incorporated joins Juliana Cobb of 72andSunny in the SPORT BEACH Content Studio for a ...
About Don Mcguire
Don McGuire, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Qualcomm, has been active in several industry events discussing the company's brand strategy and technological direction. At the 2026 SPORT BEACH Cannes event, McGuire spoke about the intersection of sports, music, and technology, stating that Qualcomm has begun combining sports and music partnerships to create deeper emotional connections with audiences. He also discussed how AI is changing content discovery, moving from traditional search methods toward agent-based interactions. At VivaTech Festival 2026, McGuire introduced the concept of the "ecosystem of you," describing it as a framework for using technology in daily life while keeping personal data private and secure, and allowing augmented intelligence to learn from users to become more helpful. At Qualcomm's 2026 Investor Day, the company announced a revised fiscal 2029 revenue target of $40 billion, up from a previous $22 billion target for non-handset revenue. McGuire noted that handset revenue is expected to fall below 50% of total revenue by 2027 and to one-third by 2029, as the company expands into automotive, IoT, and data center markets. In a 2024 interview, McGuire identified complacency and missing technological inflection points as the most destructive forces in tech, and he expressed skepticism about the need for AI to reach superintelligence, calling it "very dangerous" to pursue innovation for its own sake. He also emphasized that for AI to scale, it must be hybrid, with workloads distributed between cloud and edge devices to address sustainability and economic challenges.
Transcript (24 segments)
J
Juliana Cobb0:10
Hi. Hello. I'm Juliana Cobb, chief creative officer from 72 in sunny New York and I'm joined here by my friend Don Mcguire from Qualcomm.
D
Don Mcguire0:20
Hey Julia, nice to have you here.
J
Juliana Cobb0:22
Thanks for having me. We are coming at you live from Sports Beach, Sport Beach at Can where we're celebrating the intersection of sport, culture, and fandom, which is why our friend Don is here to talk a little bit. So, let's get into it.
D
Don Mcguire0:36
And heat.
J
Juliana Cobb0:37
And heat. The sun. My god, you guys.
D
Don Mcguire0:40
I know. We should be so lucky, right? It's amazing. It's amazing.
J
Juliana Cobb0:44
Yeah. Don't feel too bad for us. We've got the Riviera behind us. It's all good. Appreciate you coming by. One of the things that I get to do working with Don is we just launched the Snapdragon that's how brand campaign. We did it together and I'm curious from your point of view what makes this work so unique in the category.
D
Don Mcguire1:10
First of all, thank you for your partnership. I think what the work that 72 has done collaboration with the team has been next level. We love the evolution of the Snapdragon brand where we're taking the brand and how we're just leaning in more, learning more, evolving. And the key about this particular campaign, and I would actually view it more as a platform and we're executing a campaign part of the platform, is the fact that we've taken something that's highly technical and complex. We've made it very very simple for people to understand. You know, we have an immediate challenge with everything we do, which is you can't go into a store and buy a Snapdragon. Right? You can go in a store and buy a product that is powered by Snapdragon, but it's a different exercise. So, that in itself is a challenge. But the way that we've taken the insights that we have that you've brought to the table and that we've learned from all of our research and really turned it into something that people can relate to through just normal everyday things that human beings do in their lives and how technology or the power of technology can make that easier, better, faster, more productive, more creative. And then putting it through this lens of clever funny sort of scenarios whether it be by season and everyone can see themselves having an experience that combination of recipe is really what I think takes this campaign execution of the platform to the next level and then the articulation of it which is you plus Snapdragon that's how is such a huge canvas that we can paint together. So I'm looking forward to the next incarnation. So, I'm super excited about what we're going to do for holiday.
J
Juliana Cobb2:49
I love that. It is true because we've sort of identified those relatable moments where Snapdragon plays an essential role. One of the things that's been on our minds, and I know it's been on your mind, too. The tech world evolves so rapidly, which I'm sure directly impacts your work and the work that Snapdragon does within Qualcomm. What's one aspect of your job that has fundamentally changed in the past few years and how are you evolving to meet that challenge?
D
Don Mcguire3:19
Well, we sit at a very important intersection in that we are a company that has been researching and commercializing AI for about 14 years. But I'm also an enterprise CMO that has to think about AI in the context of how is that reimagining marketing and the discipline of marketing and the creative process etc. So on the one hand I have to think about how are we going to sell this concept of AI to the world both from a personal perspective, a physical perspective, etc. But also as a marketer, how do I utilize these tools, integrate these tools into workflows, still be human-led but AI-powered in the delivery of marketing to our audiences, and so it's a little bit of a dichotomy. So how we're handling it from the enterprise CMO side is really I think the pendulum has now swung back from 'hey AI is going to take your job, we're going to go lay off a bunch of people.' You know, you've heard recently people regretting the number of people they've laid off with the excuse of AI. And it swung back to, you know, really it's not one or the other, it's both, right? It's got to be human-led, AI-powered, and it's the integration of the two working together. Humans augmented with artificial intelligence to make the creative process faster, streamlined, more productive, whatever it might be. And so that's what we're learning a lot. What's changing for me and for my team is as we've embraced this, it's how to rethink how we work.
J
Juliana Cobb4:48
Yeah.
D
Don Mcguire4:48
And it could be really beneficial to critical thinking, more strategic thinking, more time. Yeah. Back because task-oriented things can be actually augmented and done a lot easier. And then beyond that how we have to then change the way we think about how audiences are going to engage with us and as the behavioral shift continues to happen away from SEO to geo and in an agentic age really just interacting with an agent who's going to then go do discovery for you or search for you. That's something that we're paying attention to and it's going to be not only has it changed already but it's going to continue to evolve.
J
Juliana Cobb5:23
Yeah. Wow. You have to think about this on so many levels. As someone at the agency, we're just thinking about how AI tools can give us this whole new crayon box of ways to create. You're thinking about all the different audiences and the way that they might want to connect with it, right? I love that. All right. So, at 72 and Sunny, we always say creativity is a team sport. From your perspective, this is a softball question to us. What's made the partnership with 72 and Sunny work so well?
D
Don Mcguire5:54
It is a softball question because you've made it so easy. And I would say it starts with collaboration. That may sound cliche, but you'd be surprised on how collaboration or a collaborative state of mind can unlock potential and really make a process easier, more enjoyable, and drive a better outcome. Everybody puts their cards on the table. Everyone's been super open. The feedback process has been iterative and everybody's open to just making the best work at the end of the day. And then as we've iterated, the turnaround time to make changes, to make adjustments, to evolve has been like just stellar. We are a dive and catch oriented organization. Part of the reason is because we have to be because we live in this world that's constantly changing, which you mentioned, but part of it is because, you know, we're all underresourced and don't have enough time in the day and all those types of things. So, to have the collaboration and the mental aptitude for we have to turn this quick. We have taken the feedback in, we're going to turn it around. It's not like this old model of thank you for the feedback, you know, we'll see you in three weeks, right? Like nobody has that time. And so the way we've been able to iterate as we innovate to create the best work and the cadence with which we've been able to do that with you, it's the first time in my tenure at Qualcomm where we've had that type of agency relationship. So kudos to you and the team. Thank you 72 and Sunny. And I do believe the work has been better for it. And I think both sides have been appreciative. Yeah.
J
Juliana Cobb7:39
Of the cadence, the pace, the feedback, the candor. And then the results from taking that into consideration and really evolving the work into something that's better. So it's been great. Love to hear that. I will say you've also built a culture on your side where your team comes into everything in a collaborative mindset. So it's been easy for us too to work through things together and get to a great outcome.
D
Don Mcguire8:03
That's good to know.
J
Juliana Cobb8:04
Yes. Well done. Well done. All right. I love this question. Okay. Qualcomm has been at the center of some of the biggest shifts in technology and we've obviously arrived at another one of those with AI. Big subject for you. How are you thinking about the company's evolution in the years ahead and what role will Snapdragon play in shaping that future? And I think you hit on some aspect of that, but I'm curious to get your take.
D
Don Mcguire8:34
Well, we're entering the agentic age, right? So, we're leaving kind of generative AI behind or gen AI and we're now entering the age of agents where agents are going to be your companions, your buddies, your friends, and they're going to be helping you. Agents are going to be talking to other agents. And so we're kind of on the precipice of this agentic world that is going to make a fundamental shift in how people are going to interact with devices, interact with technology. And at the personal level where Snapdragon lives, it's really going to change that ecosystem of you, where you've had bespoke separate devices that you've used in instances or use cases that are maybe disconnected and fragmented from each other to a truly symbiotic relationship with technology that is all around you. And what you are willing to let AI learn about you in a very safe and secure manner so that you can make your life better, right? You can get to things faster, you can be more productive, more creative, more entertained, whatever it might be. And so there's this ecosystem of devices, your phone, your watch, your glasses, your car, and maybe new devices that we haven't even seen yet. And that's where Snapdragon lives. And that's the power of Snap. It's the magic that we make happen. We're going to take that to a whole new level in the agentic age. And that's why I think for the future, Snapdragon really is the processor for the agentic age because we have the power to do that and to answer this question and to really sort of step up in this moment. So very excited about the future for Snapdragon and how together we can articulate that value proposition as it evolves.
J
Juliana Cobb10:05
You are integral to so many of the external facing ways that people are experiencing the evolution of AI with smart glasses, wearables, all of it. So it's an exciting place for you to be.
D
Don Mcguire10:15
It really is.
J
Juliana Cobb10:16
Thank you so much for stopping by, Don. Absolutely. Appreciate the time. Always good to hear your perspectives.
D
Don Mcguire10:22
Thank you.
J
Juliana Cobb10:23
That's it for now. We are on the ground the whole week at CAN. Follow 72 and Sunny on socials. Follow Don. He's got a lot of exciting stuff stacked up, too. And catch up on all the action.
D
Don Mcguire10:36
Thank you.