Google ditched Snapdragon in 2021 to build phones around its own AI silicon.
By Luke James Nov. 15, 2026 9:15 am EST Dmitri T/Shutterstock Add Engadget on Google: Google DiscoverIt seems like it was just yesterday when Google dropped Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips and launched the Pixel 6 on its proprietary Tensor platform – but it's not. We've just passed the five(!) year anniversary in October, so what better time than now to look at why Google did it. The decision saw Google swap out the mobile gaming pedigree of Snapdragon in the Pixel 5a for better AI capabilities (like transcribing a rambling voice note) in the Pixel 6 with Tensor silicon shaped around Google's machine learning models.
