SAN DIEGO, May 11, 2026, 10:04 PDT
- Qualcomm shares hit an all-time high on Monday, with the chip rally spreading past Nvidia and memory names.
- Qualcomm’s renewed focus on data-center chips is drawing attention, as the company works to catch up in a segment where it’s historically lagged.
- Same risks as before—smartphones, reliance on Apple, and those hefty memory prices.
Qualcomm Incorporated jumped as much as 6.8% Monday, climbing to $233.98 after shares hit an all-time peak of $247.62. Investors looked past the company’s sluggish handset prospects and instead focused on its push into data centers, sending the chipmaker higher along with the broader semiconductor sector.
This shift is significant. Qualcomm has long worked to shed its image as just a smartphone-chip maker. Suddenly, shares are ripping higher, a sign investors may finally be buying the narrative: artificial intelligence compute, custom silicon, and data center chips, not just another Android handset cycle.
The broader chip sector kept up its momentum, fueling the rally. According to Reuters, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit fresh intraday highs Monday, buoyed by names like Nvidia and Micron. Qualcomm spiked as much as 9.3% to notch a record peak.
Late last month, Qualcomm rolled out new numbers for investors. The San Diego-based chipmaker posted $10.6 billion in fiscal second-quarter revenue, with non-GAAP earnings landing at $2.65 per share. The company also disclosed $5.4 billion in buybacks already wrapped up for the first half of fiscal 2026, and put a fresh $20 billion on the table with a new repurchase authorization.
Chief Executive Cristiano Amon reiterated that Qualcomm’s custom silicon partnership with a “leading hyperscaler”—industry code for a major cloud-computing player—is still set for its first shipments before year-end. That brief update has driven a noticeable move in the stock. Qualcomm
Speaking to Reuters following the results, Amon said Qualcomm feels confident the smartphone market bounceback is coming after its fiscal third quarter. “We can now call the bottom,” he said, citing cues from the licensing side about phone-maker intentions for later this year. Reuters
It’s early days for Qualcomm’s data-center strategy. CEO Cristiano Amon said the company is developing CPUs, inference accelerators—the go-to hardware for when an AI model produces responses—and ASICs, those purpose-built chips tailored for single tasks. “They’re building from a small base,” TECHnalysis Research president and chief analyst Bob O’Donnell told Reuters, but Qualcomm is expanding its data-center portfolio. Reuters
Analyst calls have stirred things up. On May 8, Daiwa Securities’ Louis Miscioscia bumped Qualcomm up to Outperform from Neutral, hiking his target on the stock to $225 from $140. He urged investors to look beyond the lackluster guidance, pointing instead to revenue growth potential, valuation, and the upcoming investor day, which will dig into data-center CPUs, physical computing, and edge AI.
Still, there’s a reality check. Qualcomm’s guidance for the current quarter landed at $9.2 billion to $10 billion in revenue, missing the $10.27 billion analysts had penciled in, according to LSEG data. Adjusted EPS? The chipmaker is projecting $2.10 to $2.30 a share, short of the $2.45 estimate.
J.P. Morgan analysts aren’t sounding optimistic on smartphones, saying the sector still faces risks from ongoing memory shortages and rising memory prices. Over at Qualcomm, the company has flagged that it anticipates losing modem-chip business from Apple once their tech licensing deal ends in 2027.
Qualcomm isn’t slowing down on the handset front. The company rolled out its Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 and Snapdragon 4 Gen 5 mobile platforms last week, pointing to an expected launch window in the second half of 2026 for devices from Honor, OPPO, realme, and REDMI.
The bet looks straightforward at this point. Investors are shelling out for Qualcomm, hoping a rebound in phone chips, some buybacks, and early data-center sales can deliver a broader turnaround. The real question: can management back it up with concrete figures?
