Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon delivers a keynote speech at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan, May 19, 2025.
Ann Wang | Reuters
Qualcomm shares rose 12% on Friday and are now up 75% in the past month, as the manufacturer’s central position in the virtual AI boom is visible on Wall Street. The stock is trading at a record high.
Although Qualcomm has lagged behind giants such as Nvidia in the race for chips to power AI models and workloads, the company is using its dominance in smartphones to strengthen its role as a key player in connected devices, whether they are glasses, cars or robots.
OpenAI is reportedly partnering with Qualcomm to develop an AI chip that could power future devices run by AI agents.
“This company will return to its former glory and will lead the connected device revolution,” said Ivan Feinseth, an analyst at Tigress Financial Partners who rates Qualcomm a buy. Investors are “waking up to this reality,” he said.
Regarding Qualcomm’s work with OpenAI, Feinseth said he is bullish about the upcoming device, calling it “a phone that will be an AI-based app that will do everything.”
Qualcomm has been competing with Nasdaq for the past month
Qualcomm is at the heart of a slew of gadgets that do AI at the so-called edge, instead of the cloud. That includes Microsoft Surface PCs and smart glasses from Google and Meta. Yours The armBased chips offer a more energy-efficient alternative to those made by mid-processor leaders Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.
On Thursday, Qualcomm announced the deal with the automaker Stellantissaid it will use the chipmaker’s Snapdragon processors “to support advanced, integrated computing capabilities throughout the vehicle, including cockpit, connectivity and advanced driver assistance systems.”
Stellantis owns a broad portfolio of brands, including Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep and Maserati.
“Customers will be able to enjoy a smooth, focused, and safe driving experience on city and highway roads, with multiple driving modes to choose from,” said Ned Curic, head of product development for Stellantis, at the company’s investor day Thursday.
Qualcomm has made similar agreements with Bosch, VolkswagenHyundai and BMW. In its latest earnings report, Qualcomm said revenue in its automotive business rose 38% from a year earlier to $1.3 billion. More than 1 million vehicles already use their autonomous systems on Qualcomm processors, according to the company.
Friday’s stock pop is tied to investor excitement about Qualcomm’s entirely new business segment: data center chips.
Announced last year, Qualcomm’s upcoming AI200 and AI250 are custom AI processors – a type of programmable chip rather than Nvidia’s graphics processing units that have handled the AI load so far. The chips should go on sale later this year, available in full-scale systems like Nvidia’s Vera Rubin and AMD’s upcoming Helios system.
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said on the company’s earnings call in April that it would begin shipping data center chips for a large “hyperscaler” within the calendar year. Investors were hearing more when Amon gave a keynote speech at the Computex conference in Taiwan on June 2, and at Qualcomm’s investor day on June 24.
-CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos contributed to this report
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