.png){kind=logo}
Qualcomm has announced two new artificial intelligence chips tailored for data centers, marking its expansion beyond the smartphone market. The news pushed Qualcomm shares up by 20%, showing investor optimism about the company’s growing AI ambitions.
The new chips, dubbed AI200 and AI250, are designed to boost memory capacity and AI inference performance and are ideally suited to support large language models, chatbots, and generative AI workloads. The chipmaker also announced that the shipping of AI200 will begin in 2026, and AI250 in 2027.
Qualcomm’s step forward in AI chip manufacturing directly makes it a competitor to NVIDIA and AMD, the leaders in the AI data center market. The tech firm is highlighting cost savings and efficiency, designing its chips as cheaper, high-performance AI computing options for enterprises and cloud providers.
Qualcomm also launched AI racks based on its new chips, following the lead of NVIDIA and AMD by expanding beyond chip offerings to complete AI systems.
However, observers warn that shattering NVIDIA’s stranglehold will not be simple. “The prohibitive costs of changing chip suppliers and NVIDIA’s superior performance still constrain competition,” argued market experts.
In a high-profile show of faith, Humain, an AI company sponsored by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, has committed to deploying 200 megawatts of Qualcomm’s AI racks from 2026.
“Qualcomm’s move and large deal in Saudi Arabia are evidence that the ecosystem is breaking apart because no one company can satisfy the worldwide demand for high-efficiency AI compute,” stated Joe Tigay, portfolio manager at the Rational Equity Armor Fund.
Also Read: Google Plans on Building Android for PCs, Qualcomm CEO Calls It ‘Incredible’
Qualcomm, the world’s largest maker of smartphone modem chips, has decided to diversify gradually. This decision comes particularly after losing Huawei as a large customer, and as Apple continues working on in-house chip development.
Qualcomm has also moved into the personal computer business in recent years, competing with Intel and AMD to supply Windows laptops. The move into data center AI chips represents a pivotal step in reshaping the company’s position in the global semiconductor industry.
