Qualcomm's next flagship naming scheme is even more confusing than the previous gen

2026 is truly the year of weird names from chip companies, from the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 to the rumored Intel Core Ultra 9 4950K. It seems Qualcomm is no exception to this trend, with Digital Chat Station posting what it claims are the official names of Qualcomm's upcoming 2nm flagship platforms. The standard SM8950 chip is called the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, while the higher-end SM8975 is called the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, matching the naming convention of the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme.

The Extreme branding replaces earlier speculation that the SM8975 would launch as the "Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro," a placeholder name that had circulated widely in prior leaks, including those from Digital Chat Station itself. The SM8975 has also turned up on Xianyu as engineering samples labeled SM8975-100-BC.

Both chips are expected to be built on TSMC's 2nm N2P process, marking Qualcomm's first processors to use that node. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 is expected to pack a 2+3+3 Oryon CPU cluster with an Adreno 845 GPU, 12 MB of GMEM, and LPDDR5X support, while the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 is expected to step up to an Adreno 850 GPU with 18 MB of GMEM, AI accelerators in the GPU, and LPDDR6 support.

Qualcomm has not confirmed either name. The lineup is expected to launch at the Snapdragon Summit, which runs September 22–24 in Maui.