Qualcomm Shares Jump on Increased Non-Handset Revenue and Data Center Forecasts

Qualcomm shares jumped 15% in extended trading on Wednesday after the chipmaker said non-handset revenue in fiscal 2029 will be $40 billion, up from a prior forecast of $22 billion.

The company also said, as part of its shareholder meeting, that it's targeting $15 billion in data center sales for that year, and it's looking for total adjusted earnings of over $18 a share. Analysts polled by LSEG have an EPS target of $15.26 for fiscal 2029.

Earlier on Wednesday, Qualcomm revealed a central processing unit for data centers called Dragonfly C1000, and said that Meta would use it when it starts production in 2028. The chipmaker said that the new CPU was built for agentic AI and focuses on offering computing performance without using too much power.

The announcement, made at a Qualcomm presentation to investors, is another sign that the company best known for smartphone processors and modems is aggressively targeting the data center market.

Qualcomm said at the event that it has a roadmap to target the quickly-growing market with several different products, including an AI chip and a product that will tie multiple chips together.

CEO Cristiano Amon said the company has "just been executing, collecting assets, and when we got to this point, we feel that we have a comprehensive portfolio to enter the next phase of the data center."

Akash Palkhiwala, Qualcomm's CFO, said in an interview that the company already has business with nearly every hyperscaler through its smartphone chips and other existing products.

"This is not a new relationship. It's the benefit of what we've delivered to them already on the edge, combined with the scale and the expertise and the confidence in Qualcomm, is what makes them engage with us on data center," Palkhiwala said.

It also comes as investor interest in CPUs is rising, as experts believe that central processors will take on more of the workload from graphics processing units and AI chips because of AI agents, which run autonomously.

"There really isn't enough supply, and multiple players are needed," in the CPU market, Palkhiwala said

Qualcomm's primary business in recent years has been smartphones, which accounted for two-thirds of the company's product revenues in the quarter ended in March.

But the company is seeking to diversify into cars, robots, and the data center, all faster-growing markets for chips than the smartphone sector, which peaked in terms of shipments in 2017, according to estimates.

As part of its updated forecasts, Qualcomm said Wednesday that it's expanded its "automotive design-win pipeline" to $65 billion, and increased its revenue target to $10 billion by fiscal 2029.

Qualcomm says its expertise at making smartphone and PC chips that conserve battery life will serve customers like hyperscalers that are increasingly building data centers where the limiting factor is electrical power.

The company said it had secured two deals to make custom silicon chips for hyperscalers.

Separately, Qualcomm announced that it had acquired Modular for an undisclosed price. The startup made software that enables AI applications to run on a broad range of chip architectures, and Qualcomm says that it is an equivalent to Nvidia's CUDA, which is used in many AI applications.

Amon told investors that the company was not entering the data center market too late.

"When people ask about if it's late to enter the data center, you should think about scale and execution, or engineering capabilities, or operations and supply chain," Amon said.