A Snapdragon 8 Elite handheld would have worse driver support and thermals.

Qualcomm is nearing a big decision. It’s reportedly gearing up to release a new, midrange Snapdragon chip. While this “budget” SoC is rumored to be powered by Arm cores — not the custom Oryon cores powering other Elite chips — it’s unclear whether the company will still use “Elite” branding. We’ve seen reports use both Snapdragon 8s Elite and Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 to refer to the unannounced mobile chip.

The problem? The custom Oryon CPU cores are what make Snapdragon 8 Elite chips, well, “elite.” Let’s review how we got here.

The switch from Arm to Oryon

Last year, Qualcomm finally achieved its breakthrough moment. It launched the Snapdragon X lineup of laptop and desktop-class systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) in June 2024 that would eventually disrupt the stronghold competitors AMD and Intel had on personal computing. Then, Qualcomm used what it learned to develop the Snapdragon X platform and brought it to mobile with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

By now, I’ve had the chance to review and test multiple Snapdragon X and Snapdragon 8 Elite laptops and phones, respectively. They’re both as good as advertised. Snapdragon X brought excellent power efficiency and responsiveness to Windows laptops, and Snapdragon 8 Elite brought massive year-over-year performance improvements to Android smartphones.

Oryon cores are the secret to Qualcomm’s major success. The company used its own custom Oryon cores instead of off-the-shelf designs from Arm to make the Snapdragon X, Snapdragon X Plus, and Snapdragon X Elite SoCs. Essentially, it followed the same blueprint Apple used when designing its own silicon.

A quick look at Qualcomm’s PC processors reveals that chips with Oryon cores don’t always use the Elite brand. That’s reserved for Qualcomm’s best PC chips, while budget versions with slower clock speeds and/or fewer cores use names like Snapdragon X and Snapdragon X Plus.

But we’ve never seen a Qualcomm chip branded with the Elite tag that doesn’t use custom Oryon cores. Although there are conflicting reports about whether the next Snapdragon 8s mobile processor will get a “Gen 4” or “Elite” brand name, the right option seems clear.

Qualcomm should name the unreleased midrange chip Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 to avoid consumer confusion and keep the Elite brand sacred for the company’s standout processors — those with Oryon cores.

What will Qualcomm’s next midrange chip be called?

Right now, there’s no official word on what Qualcomm will call the next Snapdragon 8s chip. One rumor from reputable leaker Yogesh Brar on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this month said that the SoC was “set to launch soon,” referring to it as Snapdragon 8s Elite. More recently, a tip from Digital Chat Station this week on Weibo called the unreleased chip the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4.

Although both rumored names are only speculation at this point, one seems more fitting than the other.

That’s because current leaks claim to reveal the upcoming Snapdragon 8s chip’s core structure, and custom Oryon cores are absent. According to Digital Chat Station, this processor has a model number of SN8735. It is said to be headlined by a 3.21GHz Cortex-X4 Prime Core, plus three more 3.01GHz Cortex-A720 cores and two 2.80GHz Cortex-A720 cores. The SoC is also expected to include two 2.02GHz Cortex-A720 efficiency cores.

If this configuration turns out to be accurate, the Snapdragon 8s chip will use standard Arm designs rather than Qualcomm’s best Oryon cores. This isn’t a bad thing, because the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip is expensive, and the “s” variant is supposed to be cheaper. However, it does mean that the Elite branding wouldn’t exactly make sense for this particular SoC.

Qualcomm is rumored to make the right move

Qualcomm is a very large company operating in many different verticals, from cellular modems to smartphone and desktop chips. Under those circumstances, it’s easy for naming schemes to get convoluted. Just look at what Intel and Sony have done over the years, releasing products like the Intel Core i9 14900K or the Sony WH-1000XM5.

Luckily, Qualcomm seems to be aware of how important branding is for consumer clarity. At MWC Barcelona 2025, it introduced a new naming scheme for its vast portfolio of products. Qualcomm will be used for general products, like modems, with the Snapdragon brand serving consumer products and the Dragonwing brand covering the enterprise market.

Qualcomm may be set up for an interesting decision. On the one hand, using the name Snapdragon 8s Elite would make it clear that the to-be-released chip is part of the same generation as the Snapdragon 8 Elite. On the other hand, using the name Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 would make it clear that the chip isn’t using custom Oryon cores.

Only time will tell which name Qualcomm will end up using. Personally, I’m voting for the next Snapdragon 8s SoC to be called the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4. While the Elite nomenclature is an excellent brand, it’s too good to be diluted. Currently, every Elite chip features Qualcomm’s custom Oryon cores, and I think it should stay that way.

In late January, cloud-based cybersecurity company CrowdStrike (CRWD 2.38%) surpassed a $100 billion market cap valuation for the very first time in its history. That valuation places CrowdStrike in rarified company — few businesses are worth this much, regardless of the industry. But among pure-play cybersecurity companies, it’s in even more elite company.

Palo Alto Networks (PANW 1.88%) is the only other pure-play cybersecurity stock that’s achieved a $100 billion market cap. But there is a distinction between these two companies. Palo Alto Networks was founded in 2005 and passed a $100 billion valuation in late 2024. For its part, CrowdStrike was founded in 2011 and passed this milestone in early 2025.

In other words, Palo Alto Networks passed the $100 billion threshold mere weeks before CrowdStrike. But CrowdStrike had six fewer years to get there.

The road to $100 billion included speed bumps — CrowdStrike had a catastrophe less than one year ago. The company calls it the “July 19 incident.” A software update contained an error that knocked out information technology systems around the world. The stock plunged more than 40% as investors wondered if it would lose business. But the stock came roaring right back to new highs, because CrowdStrike’s business didn’t skip a beat.

Considering CrowdStrike is so big already, is the stock now as high as it will ever be? That’s a question worth exploring.

What could this mean for investors today?

For what it’s worth, Palo Alto Networks hired current CEO Nikesh Arora in 2018, and he soon went on record predicting that his company would be the first $100 billion cybersecurity business — score one for Arora with this prediction come true. The company is known for its leadership position in firewall hardware devices. But with a lot of acquisitions, Arora has positioned the company as a one-stop shop for cybersecurity.

Being that it focuses on the entire cybersecurity space, Palo Alto Networks’ business does overlap with CrowdStrike, which is more focused on cloud-based endpoint security. But I believe there’s room for both businesses.

According to multiple third-party research firms, the cybersecurity space is worth hundreds of billions of dollars and is expected to grow at a double-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for years. In short, the space is large and growing fast, which means that multiple companies can participate in the upside, including both Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike.

For its part, CrowdStrike does have multiple things going for it. First, it’s recognized as a leader in the cybersecurity products that it offers. For example, Gartner named it a leader in endpoint security for the fifth straight year in 2024. With this validation, customers are willing to give it a try, which unlocks an interesting opportunity for CrowdStrike.

CrowdStrike doesn’t offer a single software product, but rather an entire platform called Falcon. Within Falcon, the company offers 29 separate software modules that work together and are easily deployed as needs arise. This has helped it achieve an incredible growth rate in recent years — existing customers progressively subscribe to new modules, boosting their annual spend.

There’s an advantage to a business model such as this: There are up-front costs associated with winning a new customer. But much of that expense (such as sales and marketing) isn’t there when customers buy additional modules. This means that incremental revenue from new modules by existing customers is higher margin.

This dynamic is why CrowdStrike is enjoying fast revenue growth as well as fast free cash flow growth. Its modules are easy to deploy, leading to fast growth. And each new module is high margin, leading to a boost in free cash flow.

CRWD Free Cash Flow Per Share data by YCharts

Now, CrowdStrike obviously had much higher long-term upside when it was still a small company. That said, I don’t believe the good times are over for shareholders now that the company is worth $100 billion. Companies that sustain high growth rates are consistently among the best long-term stock performers. Those that also maintain profitability are even stronger contenders. And I believe that CrowdStrike can keep doing both.

As noted, the cybersecurity market provides plenty of additional market opportunity for CrowdStrike today, so its revenue growth rate could stay high for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, its guidance for the upcoming fourth quarter implies a strong growth rate of over 20%. And since so much of its growth could come from the adoption of additional modules, there’s good reason to believe free cash flow will stay strong as well.

In summary, CrowdStrike’s rapid rise from start-up to $100 billion company underscores growth trends in cybersecurity, the company’s leadership position in the space, and its advantageous business model. The long-term trends also remain in CrowdStrike’s favor, meaning that $100 billion probably won’t be the last momentous milestone on this journey.