TLDR
- Qualcomm shares jumped 15% to $182.23 after announcing AI200 and AI250 data center chips
- New chips target the growing AI infrastructure market with 2026 and 2027 launch dates
- Company acquired Alphawave for $2.4 billion to boost data center capabilities
- Stock up 4.6% over 12 months with market cap at $185.89 billion
- Qualcomm trades at 16.39x earnings with revenue growth of 15.82%
Qualcomm stock soared to a 52-week high of $182.23 on Monday. The jump came after the chipmaker revealed its latest entry into the data center space.
The company unveiled two new AI chips for enterprise customers. The AI200 and AI250 are designed to handle memory-intensive AI applications.
Shares climbed nearly 15% on the announcement. This represents one of the stock’s strongest single-day performances this year.
The new products won’t hit shelves immediately. AI200 is scheduled for 2026, while AI250 will arrive in 2027.
Data Center Push Accelerates
Qualcomm is working to reduce its reliance on smartphone chips. The company sees opportunity in the booming AI infrastructure sector.
Global spending on AI hardware continues to climb. Companies are building systems to run large language models and generative AI tools.
The San Diego-based firm spent $2.4 billion acquiring Alphawave in June. That deal brought data center semiconductor design expertise in-house.
In May, Qualcomm announced custom processors using Nvidia technology. These chips will connect to AI accelerators in data centers.
The company says its new chips support popular AI frameworks. They also promise lower total ownership costs for businesses.
Qualcomm released accelerator cards and server racks alongside the chip announcement. These products complete the company’s data center hardware lineup.
Financial Performance and Growth
The stock has gained 4.6% over the past year. Qualcomm now carries a market cap of $185.89 billion.
The company trades at a 16.39x price-to-earnings ratio. Revenue grew 15.82% in the most recent reporting period.
Qualcomm pays a quarterly dividend of $0.89 per share. The next payment goes out December 18, 2025, yielding 2.18%.
Recent quarterly results showed strength across business units. Automotive revenue rose 21% year-over-year.
The IoT division expanded 24%. Handset sales grew 7%, driven by Snapdragon 8 Elite demand.
Analysts at Benchmark maintain a Buy rating with a $200 target. The highest price target among analysts sits at $225.
Leadership and Strategic Moves
The company made several executive changes recently. Dr. Jeremy Kolter joined the board and Governance Committee.
Patricia Grech took over as Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Neil Martin shifted to lead Corporate Development.
Qualcomm adopted Arm’s ninth-generation computing architecture for PC and phone chips. This could improve AI performance across product lines.
The company competes with Intel in the data center chip market. Intel announced its Crescent Island AI chip earlier this month for 2026 launch.
Nvidia currently dominates AI chip sales for data centers. Qualcomm’s new products aim to capture a piece of that market.
The AI200 and AI250 focus on inference workloads. These are the calculations needed to run trained AI models.
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