Qualcomm (Qualcomm (QCOM)) is making a big bet that its future isn't just in your phone — it's in the data center. The chipmaker laid out an ambitious plan at its 2026 Investor Day on Thursday, targeting $15 billion in revenue from AI data center chips by fiscal 2029, and investors are loving it. Shares jumped more than 10% in premarket trading, pushing the stock back toward recent highs.
The centerpiece of the announcement was a new long-term revenue target: Qualcomm now expects its non-handset businesses to generate $40 billion in fiscal 2029, roughly double its previous forecast. That's a bold statement from a company that has long been synonymous with smartphone chips, but one that reflects a broader push into automotive, Internet of Things, and — most notably — AI infrastructure.
Qualcomm also updated its QCT semiconductor business targets, projecting automotive revenues of $10 billion and IoT revenues of more than $14 billion by fiscal 2029. On the bottom line, the company is targeting non-GAAP diluted earnings per share above $18 for that year.
The Meta Deal That Changes the Narrative
The biggest news on the data center front was a strategic multi-generation agreement with Meta Platforms (Meta (META)). Qualcomm will supply its first-generation Dragonfly C1000 CPU to power Meta's next-generation server fleet, with production slated to begin in the second half of 2028. It's a major win for Qualcomm's data center ambitions, landing one of the world's largest hyperscalers as a customer for its server chips.
This isn't just a toe-in-the-water move. Qualcomm is targeting more than $15 billion in data center AI revenue by fiscal 2029, a figure that would put it in direct competition with established players like Nvidia and AMD. The company is betting that its expertise in power-efficient chip design — honed over years of making smartphone processors — will give it an edge in the data center, where energy costs are a growing concern.
Hugging Face and Modular: Building the Ecosystem
Qualcomm also announced an expanded partnership with Hugging Face, the popular AI model repository. The collaboration will integrate Qualcomm's Snapdragon, Dragonwing, and Dragonfly platforms with Hugging Face's ecosystem of more than 3 million AI models and 16 million developers. The goal is to simplify AI deployment from edge devices to data centers, support hybrid AI workloads, and develop agentic AI orchestration across on-device and cloud environments.
As part of the deal, Hugging Face plans to bring its storage and inference services to Qualcomm Dragonfly-powered data centers. Qualcomm customers using supported devices and cloud platforms will also get access to Hugging Face PRO.
On Wednesday, Qualcomm agreed to acquire Modular Inc., an AI-native software platform that lets AI models run across CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, and custom chips. The acquisition is expected to expand Qualcomm's data center AI opportunity, improve performance and efficiency across its AI hardware, and support a broader open developer ecosystem.
What the Charts Say
From a technical perspective, Qualcomm's stock has been in a bullish structure for a while. It's trading about 10% above its 50-day simple moving average of $196.16 and roughly 29-30% above its 200-day SMA of $167.55. The 50-day SMA remains above the 200-day SMA after a golden cross in May, which is typically a bullish signal.
The near-term wrinkle is that the stock had been trading about 2.6% below its 20-day SMA of $221.63 before Thursday's jump. That means this premarket surge is an attempt to reclaim the short-term trend line rather than a clean continuation. Key resistance sits at $248, the stock's May swing high and 52-week high. Key support is at $190.50, a prior buyer-defense area. If the gap holds, Qualcomm could test that resistance level soon.
Qualcomm shares were up 10.53% at $218.20 in premarket trading Thursday, according to market data.
