Key Highlights
- Shares of QCOM climbed more than 12% during pre-market hours following its New York Investor Day presentation
- The company elevated its fiscal 2029 non-handset revenue projection to $40 billion from the prior $22 billion estimate
- Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, announced plans to integrate Qualcomm’s Dragonfly C1000 CPU into Meta’s data center operations
- Satya Nadella of Microsoft revealed Azure’s adoption of Qualcomm’s High-Bandwidth Compute technology
- The chipmaker completed an all-stock acquisition of AI software company Modular, valued at approximately $3.92 billion
Shares of Qualcomm experienced a dramatic surge on Thursday morning, climbing from their previous closing price of $197.41 to reach $220.76 during pre-market activity—representing a gain exceeding 12%. The rally followed the company’s highly anticipated Investor Day presentation held Wednesday evening in New York City.
The sharp price movement stemmed from a series of significant announcements that repositioned Qualcomm’s strategic focus toward AI-powered data centers, moving beyond its conventional smartphone semiconductor operations.
The most striking revelation: Qualcomm elevated its fiscal year 2029 non-handset revenue projection to $40 billion—approaching double its previous guidance of $22 billion.
Breaking down these projections, the semiconductor giant anticipates generating $15 billion from data center operations, over $14 billion from Internet of Things applications, and $10 billion from the automotive sector by fiscal 2029. Additionally, management established an adjusted earnings per share goal exceeding $18 for that timeframe, substantially higher than Wall Street’s current consensus estimate of $15.26.
Chief Executive Cristiano Amon informed stakeholders that the organization has been “executing, collecting assets,” and now possesses a “comprehensive portfolio to enter the next phase of the data center.”
Introducing the Dragonfly C1000 and Meta Partnership
Central to these announcements is the Dragonfly C1000—a powerful 250-core server processor leveraging Qualcomm’s proprietary Oryon architecture, specifically engineered for agentic artificial intelligence applications.
Meta‘s CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a surprise stage appearance to announce a multi-generation partnership for deploying the Dragonfly C1000 throughout Meta’s server ecosystem. Manufacturing is scheduled to commence during the latter half of 2028.
Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella similarly confirmed that the Azure cloud platform will implement Qualcomm’s High-Bandwidth Compute (HBC) architecture—a chip solution utilizing more affordable memory technology found in mobile devices and personal computers, offering an alternative to the costly high-bandwidth memory components predominantly used by Nvidia.
Modular Acquisition Details
Qualcomm simultaneously revealed its acquisition of Modular, an artificial intelligence software startup, through an all-stock transaction valued at roughly $3.92 billion.
Modular’s technology enables AI models to operate seamlessly across semiconductors from various manufacturers—including Nvidia and AMD—eliminating the need for architecture-specific programming. This acquisition establishes Qualcomm as a viable open-platform competitor to Nvidia’s industry-leading CUDA ecosystem.
The company further disclosed partnerships with two undisclosed hyperscale cloud providers for custom chip designs, with production commencing in late 2026.
These developments coincided with Micron Technology’s release of exceptional fiscal third-quarter results, amplifying positive momentum throughout the semiconductor industry and pushing Nasdaq futures higher.
Ahead of the investor presentation, JPMorgan had positioned QCOM on its Positive Catalyst Watch list and increased its price target to $265.
Current Wall Street consensus reflects a Hold rating, comprising 19 Hold recommendations, 8 Buy ratings, and 4 Sell ratings, with an average price target of $187.33. Analyst ratings are expected to undergo revisions as they evaluate Wednesday’s major announcements.
According to GuruFocus, the stock’s intrinsic value stands at $175.34, suggesting the pre-market price represents approximately 12.6% above its calculated fair value.
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