San Diego – November 28, 2025 – Qualcomm stock (NASDAQ: QCOM) is quietly grinding higher again. By late trading on Friday, November 28, shares were changing hands around $167.5, up roughly 1.4% on the day, with an intraday range near $164.1–$167.8. That puts QCOM comfortably ahead of the broader U.S. indices, which are only up about 0.3–0.4% today. [1]
Behind the modest green number on the screen, there’s a lot going on:
- fresh progress on Qualcomm’s Alphawave IP Group acquisition,
- a $20 million bridge loan to that target,
- a wave of new and reshuffled institutional stakes (including Norges Bank, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock), and
- the continuing AI story around Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 and Qualcomm’s data center AI chips. [2]
Qualcomm stock price today: where QCOM stands
At around $167–168, Qualcomm sits in the middle of its recent trading range:
- 52‑week range: roughly $120.8 (low) to $205.95 (high).
- Today’s price leaves the stock about 39% above its 52‑week low, but still around 19% below the late‑October high near $206. [3]
- Over 2025, QCOM is up only about 6–11%, depending on the benchmark used, lagging the Nasdaq’s nearly 20% gain over the same period. [4]
From a fundamentals angle, Qualcomm screens as a classic “big tech cash machine”:
- Market cap: around $175–180 billion. [5]
- P/E ratio: roughly 16x forward earnings. [6]
- Dividend: quarterly $0.89 per share, or about 2.2% forward yield, with an annualized payout of $3.56. [7]
- Institutional ownership: about 74% of shares held by institutions and hedge funds. [8]
In other words: Qualcomm is not a meme stock. It’s a heavily institutionally‑owned, dividend‑paying AI and connectivity giant that just happens to be in the middle of a large strategic pivot.
Alphawave acquisition and bridge loan: Qualcomm doubles down on data‑center connectivity
The headline M&A story tied to Qualcomm today is Alphawave IP Group, a London‑listed high‑speed connectivity specialist.
- Qualcomm’s subsidiary Aqua Acquisition Sub LLC is pursuing a recommended acquisition of Alphawave via a court‑sanctioned scheme of arrangement in the UK. [9]
- To keep Alphawave financially steady until closing, Qualcomm has agreed to provide a $20 million unsecured bridge loan / credit facility, aimed at supporting working capital and general corporate needs while Alphawave works through customer order delays and macro headwinds. [10]
- Coverage of the deal pegs the overall Alphawave transaction value at about $2.4 billion, with closing currently targeted for December 18, 2025, pending remaining approvals. [11]
Strategically, Alphawave fits right into Qualcomm’s “beyond smartphones” thesis:
- Alphawave designs high‑speed SerDes and connectivity IP used in data‑center and networking silicon – the plumbing for AI chips. [12]
- Qualcomm is already preparing its own AI200 and AI250 data‑center accelerators, slated for 2026 and 2027, and has said the move could open up a multi‑trillion‑dollar data‑center capex cycle. [13]
For Qualcomm shareholders, today’s Alphawave loan and acquisition updates don’t change the economics overnight, but they underscore that QCOM is serious about being a data‑center and AI connectivity player, not just a smartphone modem provider.
Big‑money flows: Norges Bank, BlackRock, BoA, Goldman and others move around QCOM
One reason Qualcomm stock has a bid under it today: an unusually dense cluster of institutional filings and stake updates landing on November 28.
Norges Bank takes a multi‑billion‑dollar position
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank, disclosed a new position of 17,038,822 QCOM shares, worth about $2.71 billion, equating to roughly 1.58% ownership at the end of the last reported quarter. [14]
The same filing recaps Qualcomm’s recent earnings beat (more on that below) and notes:
- Institutions now hold about 74.35% of QCOM shares.
- Corporate insiders own only around 0.08%, and have been net sellers over the last quarter. [15]
When one of the world’s biggest sovereign funds parks billions into a stock, it tends to reinforce the idea that the name is a core, long‑term compounder in institutional portfolios.
Skandinaviska and GMO trim positions
Not all flows are one‑way buying:
- Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ cut its Qualcomm stake by 19.3%, selling 207,070 shares and ending the quarter with 866,116 shares worth about $137.9 million. [16]
- Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. (GMO) reduced its position by 17.4%, to 241,385 shares valued around $38.4 million. [17]
These trims look more like portfolio rebalancing than a vote of no confidence. Both institutions still hold significant exposure, and the broader institutional ownership percentage remains high.
GM Advisory Group opens a new stake
At the other end of the spectrum, GM Advisory Group LLC disclosed a new QCOM position of 4,798 shares (about $764,000), joining a list of funds that have materially increased their Qualcomm holdings in recent quarters. [18]
That same note highlights that Qualcomm:
- Beat Q4 earnings expectations with $3.00 EPS vs. $2.87 expected and revenue of $11.27B vs. $10.74B estimated.
- Issued Q1 FY26 EPS guidance of $3.30–$3.50, above pre‑announcement consensus. [19]
Bank of America & Goldman Sachs cross 1% ownership
In a separate report published today, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs each disclosed holding more than 1% of Qualcomm as of November 27, 2025. Bank of America also recently raised its QCOM price target to $215, framing the stock as a structural AI beneficiary. [20]
Combined with Norges Bank’s move, this adds up to a picture where large, sophisticated institutions are building or reinforcing multi‑percent stakes in Qualcomm just as the company leans harder into AI and data‑center hardware.
BlackRock’s 9.3% interest disclosure
On top of that, a Form 8.3 filing in London shows BlackRock, Inc. disclosing interests in approximately 99.3 million Qualcomm shares, equivalent to about 9.28% of the relevant securities, plus a small derivative position. [21]
The filing is made under UK takeover rules related to the Alphawave transaction, but the underlying message for QCOM investors is straightforward: one of the world’s largest asset managers holds nearly a tenth of the stock.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 and AI roadmap: the product story behind the ticker
While today’s news is dominated by filings and M&A plumbing, Qualcomm’s product pipeline is the reason those filings matter.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 5: pushing AI and gaming in smartphones
Earlier this week, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 mobile platform – essentially the “non‑Elite” sibling of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. [22]
Key takeaways from device‑side coverage:
- Still built on TSMC’s 3 nm process with Qualcomm’s Oryon CPU.
- Uses two prime cores and six performance cores, peaking around 3.8 GHz on the big cores. [23]
- Qualcomm and reviewers say it delivers about 36% faster CPU performance and roughly 11% better GPU performance than the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, while using up to 42% less power at equivalent performance. [24]
- Early reports point to upcoming devices from OnePlus, Vivo, Motorola and other Android OEMs adopting the chip in 2025–2026. [25]
For Qualcomm’s stock, this matters because high‑end mobile SoCs are still the company’s cash cow. The more compelling the performance‑per‑watt story for AI, gaming and camera workloads, the more pricing power and share Qualcomm can defend at the premium end of Android.
Data‑center AI: Qualcomm vs. Nvidia (and everyone else)
The other major growth pillar is data‑center AI:
- Qualcomm has introduced its AI200 and upcoming AI250 accelerators, targeting energy‑efficient AI inference in data centers.
- The first AI200 systems are slated for commercial deployments in 2026, with AI250 following in 2027. [26]
- The chips are being marketed as cheaper, more power‑efficient alternatives to Nvidia’s GPUs, especially for inference workloads where raw FLOPS are less important than cost per token or query.
This AI push is exactly why Qualcomm’s stock skyrocketed nearly 20% when the data‑center strategy was unveiled in late October, and why the market is still treating QCOM as an AI hardware name rather than just a legacy smartphone vendor. [27]
Earnings and fundamentals: Q4 beat, FY25 growth and FY26 guidance
Qualcomm’s recently reported Q4 FY2025 and full‑year numbers form the fundamental backdrop for today’s moves:
- Q4 FY25 revenue: about $11.3 billion, up ~13% year‑over‑year.
- Q4 EPS (non‑GAAP):$3.00, beating Street estimates and management’s own guidance ranges. [28]
- Full‑year FY25 (non‑GAAP) revenue: around $44 billion, up 13% YoY.
- Full‑year FY25 non‑GAAP EPS: about $12.03, up 18% versus the prior year. [29]
Segment detail shows the diversification story is real:
- QCT (chip) revenues around $38.4B, up 16% year‑over‑year, with:
- Handsets up 14%,
- Automotive up 36%,
- IoT up 22% for the full year. [30]
For Q1 FY2026 guidance, Qualcomm is projecting:
- Revenue of $11.8–$12.6 billion,
- Non‑GAAP EPS of $3.30–$3.50, implying continued double‑digit earnings power if management delivers. [31]
Despite this, some commentary has focused on Qualcomm underperforming the Nasdaq on a one‑year view and still trading below its late‑October highs, even after the AI re‑rating. [32]
How today’s news fits into the bigger QCOM story
Put together, the November 28 Qualcomm tape tells a fairly clean story:
- Strategic expansion:
- Alphawave’s acquisition and bridge loan strengthen Qualcomm’s high‑speed connectivity and data‑center stack right as AI infrastructure spending ramps. [33]
- Institutional conviction (with normal churn):
- Solid fundamentals + shareholder returns:
- Q4 and FY25 numbers show double‑digit revenue and EPS growth, strong free cash flow, and a 2%+ dividend yield on top of buybacks. [36]
- AI‑driven optionality:
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 keeps Qualcomm highly relevant in AI‑heavy smartphones, while AI200/AI250 aim at the data‑center inference market currently dominated by Nvidia. [37]
From a price‑action perspective, QCOM’s roughly 1–1.5% move today is not spectacular, but the news density is. The market is digesting a blend of M&A, AI product cadence, and very large pools of capital shifting into (and around) the stock.
For investors and traders tracking Qualcomm, the next key checkpoints look like:
- Regulatory and closing updates on the Alphawave acquisition in December. [38]
- Early benchmarks and design‑win announcements around Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 phones. [39]
- More detail on AI200 deployments and data‑center customer wins in 2026 guidance commentary. [40]
Important note
This article is for informational and news purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Qualcomm stock, like any equity, carries risk, especially around cyclical smartphone demand, AI adoption timing, competitive dynamics and regulatory approvals.
References
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