Shares of Qualcomm soared to a 52-week high after the chipmaking giant unveiled two new artificial intelligence (AI) chips designed for data centers — marking a major step in the company’s expansion beyond its traditional smartphone business.
The company announced the launch of the AI200 and AI250 chips on Monday, both built to deliver enhanced memory capacity and performance for running AI applications, including inference workloads. According to Qualcomm, the AI200 will be available commercially in 2026, while the AI250 will debut in 2027.
The announcement sent Qualcomm’s stock up by 20%, reflecting strong investor confidence in its growing focus on artificial intelligence. Analysts noted that the move positions Qualcomm as a serious competitor to industry leaders like Nvidia and AMD in the AI data center market.
With global demand for AI hardware skyrocketing, Qualcomm’s entry into the space signals a strategic shift. The company emphasized that its new chips are optimized for cost efficiency and compatibility with major AI frameworks, making them an attractive option for enterprises and cloud providers looking to scale their AI operations.
In addition to the chips, Qualcomm also revealed data center racks built around the new hardware — a move mirroring Nvidia and AMD’s broader approach of offering complete infrastructure systems rather than just individual components.
As global investment in generative AI and large language model technologies continues to surge, Qualcomm’s pivot toward high-performance AI data center solutions underscores its ambition to play a leading role in the next era of computing.
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