SAN DIEGO, May 11, 2026, 07:14 PDT
Qualcomm jumped roughly 7% Monday morning on the Nasdaq, building on momentum that’s taken investor focus off the chipmaker’s muted quarterly guidance—and toward its debut data-center chip effort. Shares last traded at $234.14, up $15.05, after climbing as high as $247.62.
The clock’s ticking on whether Wall Street is ready to price Qualcomm outside its usual handset orbit. Shares surged over 8.8% in premarket action on Monday, according to Investing.com, as investors reacted to fiscal Q2 results, a round of analyst upgrades, and fresh details on Qualcomm’s upcoming data-center chip shipments to a major cloud client later this year.
Qualcomm posted second-quarter revenue of $10.6 billion, with adjusted earnings hitting $2.65 per share. Its outlook for the current quarter came in softer, projecting revenue between $9.2 billion and $10.0 billion and adjusted EPS in the $2.10 to $2.30 range. Memory supply limitations and pricier components are dampening demand from handset manufacturers.
That’s the disconnect investors are wrestling with. Sentiment took a turn, Barchart columnist Ian Cooper noted, after Chief Executive Cristiano Amon said Qualcomm plans to start shipping data-center chips to a “large hyperscaler” this year. That term refers to a big cloud operator—someone buying computing gear on a massive scale. Barchart
Qualcomm hasn’t disclosed the customer. Business Insider quoted CFO Akash Palkhiwala: “We now expect initial shipments for a custom silicon engagement at a leading hyperscaler later this calendar year.” CEO Cristiano Amon also described the deal to an analyst as potentially “multi-generation.” Custom silicon refers to chips built for a particular client or purpose. Business Insider
Qualcomm’s data-center strategy edges the company into territory long staked out by Nvidia, Broadcom, and Marvell. According to Reuters, CEO Amon said Qualcomm is collaborating with customers on CPUs, inference accelerators—those are for running trained AI models—and ASICs, or application-specific integrated circuits. “We’re executing on all three,” Amon said. Reuters
Sell-side calls are coming in. Daiwa Securities’ Louis Miscioscia has bumped Qualcomm up to Outperform from Neutral, jacking his price target all the way up to $225 from $140. According to Investing.com, Miscioscia’s note singles out the company’s investor day plus expanding chances in data-center CPUs, physical computing, and edge AI. Ivan Feinseth at Tigress Financial Partners lifted his own target to $280 and stuck with a Buy.
Trefis pushed an even bolder target in its Forbes-featured analysis, suggesting Qualcomm shares could climb to roughly $340—if revenue from AI, automotive, and on-device computing takes off and the market rewards the stock with a higher multiple. It’s a scenario, not an official forecast.
It’s still the business mix holding things back. Qualcomm’s QCT chip segment reported $6.02 billion in handset revenue for the quarter, a 13% drop year-over-year. Automotive came in stronger—up 38% to $1.33 billion. Internet-of-things revenue added 9%, reaching $1.73 billion. But phones are still the main driver.
Qualcomm is “building from a small base,” said Bob O’Donnell, who heads TECHnalysis Research, in a comment to Reuters. He pointed to the broader data-center portfolio as a sign the company’s strategy is coming into its own. That’s really the pitch to investors: not much to show yet, but the promise is there. Reuters
There’s a risk the stock’s surge is outpacing fundamentals. Reuters pointed out Qualcomm is still wrestling with high memory-chip costs, lackluster smartphone sales, and mounting pressure from Apple, which is moving more modem work in-house—that’s a big hit to a critical revenue source. Should the handset bounce-back falter, or if the hyperscaler deal stalls, Qualcomm’s fresh AI-driven valuation could face a swift reality check.
Qualcomm is keeping shareholders patient, handing out cash even as it pitches a future turnaround. The company reported $3.7 billion sent back to investors last quarter between dividends and buybacks. Its board signed off on a fresh $20 billion buyback plan, plus a bump to the quarterly dividend. All eyes now turn to June 24, when the company’s investor day is expected to deliver concrete figures rather than another sweeping growth pitch.
