Qualcomm (QCOM) Stock Rises as Alphawave AI Deal Advances and Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Launches

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) finished Friday, November 28, 2025, on a positive note, with investors digesting a flood of AI‑focused headlines ranging from its pending Alphawave IP Group acquisition to fresh mobile and data‑center chip launches and big new institutional shareholders. ^[1]

Shares closed around $168.09, up roughly 1.8% on the day, after trading between $164.14 and $168.12, on volume a little over 5 million shares — well below the recent average near 8–9 million. ^[2]

Behind that modest move is a much larger story: Qualcomm is racing to transform itself from a smartphone‑centric chip designer into a diversified AI and compute platform company. Here’s what today’s news flow means for Qualcomm stock.

Qualcomm stock today: steady climb near the high end of its range

Market data show Qualcomm closing at $168.09, about 1.79% higher than Thursday’s close, putting the stock roughly in the upper half of its recent trading range. ^[3]

Based on recent filings and analyst data, Qualcomm’s market capitalization sits around $176–177 billion, with a trailing price‑to‑earnings ratio near 16 and a PEG ratio around 2.6, implying investors are already assigning a premium for growth beyond smartphones. ^[4]

Volume of just over 5.06 million shares was about 40% lower than the roughly 8.8 million‑share average, suggesting today’s move higher came without a surge of short‑term trading activity. ^[5]

Over the last twelve months, QCOM has traded between roughly $120.80 and $205.95, leaving today’s price well above the lows but still meaningfully below the 52‑week peak — a reminder that despite the AI enthusiasm, the stock has not fully retraced earlier drawdowns. ^[6]

Alphawave AI acquisition: bridge financing and final approvals

One of the biggest headlines for Qualcomm stockholders revolves around its planned $2.4 billion acquisition of Alphawave IP Group, a UK‑listed provider of high‑speed wired connectivity and chiplet IP that’s seen as strategically important for AI and data‑center infrastructure. ^[7]

Regulatory green lights and closing timeline

Earlier this week, Alphawave disclosed that Qualcomm’s Aqua Acquisition Sub LLC has now received approval from the Korea Fair Trade Commission, securing the last major antitrust clearance needed to close the deal. ^[8]
The transaction is expected to close on or around December 18, 2025, subject to remaining court and procedural steps in the UK. ^[9]

$20 million bridge loan underscores Qualcomm’s commitment

On November 28, Alphawave announced it has entered into a US$20 million unsecured credit facility — a “Bridge Loan” — with Qualcomm. The facility, priced at Term SOFR + 2.75%, is designed to support Alphawave’s working capital and general corporate needs during the pre‑closing period. ^[10]

Key details:

The loan is unsecured and intended to stabilize Alphawave’s finances as it navigates softer macro conditions and a multi‑month takeover process. ^[11]
It is repayable on or before a long‑stop date tied to the transaction’s completion or termination, reinforcing that this is transitional financing rather than a long‑term capital structure change. ^[12]

Why Alphawave matters for Qualcomm’s AI strategy

According to commentary from TipRanks and other coverage of the deal, Alphawave brings high‑speed SerDes, Ethernet and chiplet‑based connectivity IP that are essential for scaling modern AI data‑center architectures. Those technologies are expected to complement Qualcomm’s in‑house Oryon™ CPU and Hexagon™ NPU roadmaps. ^[13]

For investors, the message is clear: Qualcomm is willing not only to spend billions on strategic assets, but also to provide bridge financing to ensure those assets remain healthy ahead of integration. That kind of support can de‑risk the acquisition technically, but it also increases Qualcomm’s short‑term exposure to a single deal, making successful integration crucial.

Big money moves: BofA, Goldman, Norges Bank and other institutions

Institutional flows around QCOM intensified this week:

A report dated November 27 shows Bank of America and Goldman Sachs each disclosing that they now hold more than 1% of Qualcomm, a threshold that triggers UK disclosure under takeover rules. The same report notes that Bank of America recently raised its price target on QCOM to $215, signaling an increasingly bullish stance. ^[14]
A separate MarketBeat report today highlights that Norges Bank, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, recently built a new 17.0 million‑share position in Qualcomm worth about $2.71 billion, representing roughly 1.6% ownership. ^[15]

At the same time, some institutions are trimming:

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ cut its Qualcomm stake by 19.3%, selling just over 207,000 shares in the second quarter but still holding 866,000+ shares worth about $138 million and keeping QCOM among its larger positions. ^[16]
Earlier filings show Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. reducing its stake by 17.4% to around 241,000 shares, while other large asset managers such as Vanguard, Invesco and Ameriprise have modestly increased their holdings. ^[17]

Across these filings, around 74% of Qualcomm’s float is now in institutional and hedge‑fund hands — a level consistent with large, blue‑chip chipmakers and one that amplifies the impact of big fund‑flow shifts on the stock price. ^[18]

The UK’s takeover regime has also triggered a flurry of Form 8.3 and 8.5 disclosures related to both Qualcomm and Alphawave, with firms such as Geode Capital, Barclays, State Street and Bank of Montreal reporting positions and derivatives linked to the deal. ^[19]

New data‑center AI chips and the Humain partnership

Qualcomm’s AI story is no longer just about smartphones.

AI200 and AI250: Qualcomm’s shot at Nvidia’s turf

On October 27, Qualcomm unveiled two new AI accelerators for data centers, branded AI200 and AI250, aimed at running generative AI and other inference workloads in servers. The announcement sent QCOM shares up about 20% on the day, underscoring investor enthusiasm for the company’s AI ambitions. ^[20]

According to Reuters, the new chips:

Are designed for higher memory capacity and efficient AI inference.
Will roll out commercially in 2026 (AI200) and 2027 (AI250).
Come with full support for mainstream AI software frameworks and are offered not just as chips but also in rack‑scale systems, mirroring how Nvidia and AMD package their own data‑center platforms. ^[21]

The strategic goal is straightforward: reduce Qualcomm’s reliance on smartphones by targeting the fast‑growing market for AI compute in cloud and enterprise data centers.

Humain and 200 MW of Qualcomm‑powered AI racks

Qualcomm’s data‑center roadmap is already tied to a marquee customer:

Reuters reports that Humain, a Saudi sovereign‑wealth‑fund‑backed AI startup, plans to deploy 200 megawatts of Qualcomm‑based AI racks starting in 2026. ^[22]
A separate Reuters‑syndicated article via Cyprus Mail notes that Adobe and Qualcomm are partnering with Humain to build AI tools focused on Arabic‑language content. Adobe will integrate Allam, a large language model trained in Arabic, into its creative software, while Humain will run these models in data centers powered by Qualcomm’s AI chips. ^[23]
Qualcomm also plans to open a joint R&D center with Humain in Riyadh, which will support the roll‑out of this 200 MW AI infrastructure. ^[24]

Analysis from Simply Wall St suggests that while this Humain collaboration strengthens Qualcomm’s strategic position in the Middle East and in generative AI infrastructure, the near‑term earnings contribution is likely modest, and execution risk — particularly against entrenched players like Nvidia — remains high. ^[25]

Snapdragon 8 Gen 5: extending Qualcomm’s mobile AI moat

On the consumer side, Qualcomm is using AI to reinforce its smartphone dominance.

A new flagship‑class chip for “affordable premium” phones

This week, Qualcomm formally unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 mobile platform, a flagship‑tier system‑on‑chip that sits just below the top‑of‑the‑line Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. ^[26]

According to detailed coverage from Android Central and Android Authority, Snapdragon 8 Gen 5: ^[27]

Uses TSMC’s 3 nm N3P process and Qualcomm’s Oryon CPU cores, clocked around 3.8 GHz.
Targets “affordable flagship” phones rather than ultra‑premium devices, widening the addressable market.
Delivers up to 36% higher CPU performance and 42% better CPU power efficiency compared with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
Offers roughly 11% GPU performance gains with about 28% better GPU power efficiency.
Boosts on‑device AI performance by as much as 46% vs. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, enabling more advanced agentic AI assistants, real‑time translation and video effects directly on the handset.

The first phones based on Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 are expected soon from brands such as OnePlus, Vivo, Motorola and iQOO, with leaks suggesting devices like the OnePlus 15R and upcoming Vivo flagships will adopt the chip. ^[28]

For Qualcomm, the key investment takeaway is that on‑device AI remains a major differentiator in Android smartphones — and Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is aimed squarely at bringing those capabilities to higher‑volume, mid‑to‑upper‑tier devices, not just the priciest flagships.

Earnings backdrop: record chip revenues, one‑off tax hit

Today’s trading also sits against the backdrop of Qualcomm’s fourth‑quarter and full‑year 2025 results, released earlier this month.

Q4 2025: strong operations, ugly GAAP optics

For the quarter ended September 28, 2025, Qualcomm reported: ^[29]

Revenue: about $11.27 billion, up roughly 10% year over year and above the high end of guidance.
Non‑GAAP EPS:$3.00, beating consensus estimates around $2.87–$2.88.
GAAP net result: a $3.1 billion loss, driven by a $5.7 billion non‑cash tax charge tied to President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which will reduce future cash tax payments.

Segment performance was robust:

The QCT chip segment posted roughly $9.8 billion in revenue, with automotive sales exceeding $1 billion for the first time, up about 36% year over year, and IoT revenue rising around 22% to $1.8 billion. ^[30]
Handset revenue climbed roughly 14% to about $7 billion, reflecting stronger demand for premium smartphones capable of running AI‑enhanced apps. ^[31]
The QTL licensing business delivered about $1.4 billion, roughly in line with expectations. ^[32]

For fiscal 2025, Qualcomm generated around $44 billion in non‑GAAP revenue, up roughly 13% year over year, and a record $12.8 billion in free cash flow, highlighting the underlying profitability of the business despite the tax charge. ^[33]

Outlook: solid guidance and ongoing diversification

Qualcomm’s management guided for the current fiscal Q1 2026 to deliver: ^[34]

Revenue between $11.8 billion and $12.6 billion.
Non‑GAAP EPS in the $3.30–$3.50 range.

The company also declared a $0.89 quarterly dividend, implying an annual payout of $3.56 per share and a yield of roughly 2.1–2.2% at today’s price. ^[35]

Reuters’ post‑earnings coverage emphasized that while smartphone demand has recovered and guidance topped Wall Street expectations, Qualcomm expects its share of Samsung’s next‑generation Galaxy S26 lineup to fall from 100% of modems in the S25 range to about 75%, highlighting ongoing reliance on a handful of major handset customers and the risk of share loss. ^[36]

Long‑term return profile: past “dead money,” future AI option?

Kiplinger ran a feature today examining what a long‑term investment in Qualcomm would look like. The results are sobering for patient holders: ^[37]

A $1,000 investment in QCOM 20 years ago would now be worth roughly $5,600, an annualized total return of about 9%.
The same $1,000 in a broad S&P 500 index would have grown to around $7,900, or about 10.9% annualized.

In other words, Qualcomm has significantly lagged the benchmark over the past two decades, despite being central to the mobile revolution. Kiplinger attributes this underperformance to a combination of dot‑com‑era overvaluation, extended legal battles (including antitrust cases and disputes with Apple), and a historically lumpy revenue profile that swung between high‑growth years and sharp pullbacks. ^[38]

Interestingly, over its full life as a public company, QCOM still boasts an impressive total‑return record — around 19.9% annualized, nearly double the long‑term S&P 500 average — but that headline figure hides long stretches of flat or disappointing performance. ^[39]

On the forward‑looking side:

Kiplinger cites 36 analysts tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence: 11 rate QCOM “Strong Buy,” 5 “Buy,” 19 “Hold,” and 1 “Strong Sell,” producing an overall “Buy” consensus but with only moderate conviction. ^[40]
Argus Research’s Jim Kelleher, quoted in the article, argues that Snapdragon processors are well positioned for the age of on‑device generative AI, and that Qualcomm’s rapid growth in automotive, networking and IoT, together with its royalty stream, leaves the stock undervalued relative to its long‑term opportunities — a view many AI‑bullish investors will find appealing. ^[41]

Other data providers echo that tone: sites like StockAnalysis and ValueInvesting.io show average 12‑month price targets in roughly the mid‑$180s to mid‑$190s, implying about 11–16% upside from today’s price, with consensus ratings ranging from “Moderate Buy” to “Hold” depending on methodology. ^[42]

Key risks investors should watch

Even with today’s upbeat AI headlines, Qualcomm stock carries several important risks:

Smartphone dependence and customer concentration
Smartphones still account for a large share of Qualcomm’s revenue, and the company expects to hold a smaller modem share in Samsung’s Galaxy S26 lineup. Apple is also steadily moving toward in‑house modems for some models, and Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi each still represent more than 10% of Qualcomm’s sales. ^[43]
AI data‑center competition
The AI200 and AI250 accelerators arrive in a market dominated by Nvidia, with AMD and Intel also aggressively targeting AI workloads. Switching costs for cloud providers are high, and Nvidia’s software ecosystem is deeply entrenched, making it challenging for new entrants to win large, sustained deployments despite attractive power‑efficiency claims. ^[44]
Alphawave integration and execution
While the Alphawave acquisition promises strategic benefits in high‑speed connectivity, it also adds integration risk, especially given Alphawave’s need for a stabilizing bridge loan and a tougher macro environment for some data‑center customers. ^[45]
Regulatory and legal overhang
Qualcomm has a long history of antitrust disputes and licensing litigation. New AI and semiconductor regulations — plus ongoing or future class actions, such as a £480 million UK case over alleged chip‑market abuse — could introduce additional uncertainty or costs. ^[46]

Bottom line for Qualcomm (QCOM) stock on November 28, 2025

Today’s action in Qualcomm stock is less about the 1.8% price move and more about the reinforcing narrative:

The Alphawave IP acquisition — now backed by a $20 million bridge loan and key Korean approval — deepens Qualcomm’s reach into high‑speed connectivity and chiplet IP for AI data centers. ^[47]
New data‑center AI chips (AI200, AI250) and the Humain partnership position Qualcomm as a credible, if still emerging, challenger to Nvidia and AMD in AI infrastructure. ^[48]
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 launch keeps Qualcomm at the center of the Android premium and “affordable flagship” markets, where on‑device AI capabilities are becoming a key differentiator. ^[49]
A wave of institutional activity — with Norges Bank, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs all holding sizeable stakes — underscores that big money continues to see Qualcomm as a core AI and semiconductor holding, even as some funds rebalance or take profits. ^[50]

For investors, the essential question is whether Qualcomm can execute on its AI and data‑center ambitions quickly enough to offset the inevitable volatility in smartphones and licensing — and whether today’s price already bakes in much of that optimism.

As always, this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment advice. Anyone considering Qualcomm stock should weigh these developments against their own risk tolerance, time horizon and portfolio needs.

Qualcomm + Alphawave VS Broadcom!