Qualcomm Stock Surges After $1 Billion Saudi Arabia AI Datacenter Deal

TLDR

• Qualcomm revealed AI200 and AI250 datacenter chips set to launch in 2026 and 2027
• Stock jumped 15% to $182.23 after the announcement, hitting a 52-week high
• Company secured 200 MW datacenter deal with Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN worth approximately $1 billion
• New chips use LPDDR memory and PCIe technology rather than more advanced HBM and NVLink systems
• Analysts note Qualcomm’s specifications lag behind Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom competitors

Qualcomm made its move into the datacenter AI market on Monday with two new chip products. The company announced the AI200 and AI250 chips designed for enterprise customers running memory-intensive applications.

The stock climbed nearly 15% to $182.23 following the news. This marked a 52-week high for the chipmaker.

QUALCOMM Incorporated, QCOM

The AI200 will become available in 2026. The AI250 follows in 2027.

Qualcomm also disclosed a 200 megawatt capacity agreement with HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign AI initiative. The deal builds on a letter of intent from May 2025.

Analysts at Wolfe Research estimate the Saudi agreement could be worth around $1 billion. This represents lower value per gigawatt compared to recent competitor deals.

Technical Approach Differs From Market Leaders

The new Qualcomm chips will use LPDDR memory instead of HBM memory. They will also employ PCIe technology for scale up rather than Ethernet or NVLink.

Wolfe Research maintained its Peerperform rating on the stock. The firm noted that Qualcomm’s specifications appear less powerful than current products from Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom.

Qualcomm has not released pricing, power consumption figures, or detailed performance metrics. These details will determine how the chips compete in the market.

The AI200 and AI250 target inference workloads. These are the calculations needed to run trained AI models in production.

Qualcomm acquired Alphawave for $2.4 billion in June. That purchase brought datacenter semiconductor design expertise to the company.

The chipmaker also introduced accelerator cards and server racks. These products complete its datacenter hardware offering.

Market Competition and Financial Performance

Nvidia currently leads the datacenter AI chip sector. The company holds a $4.64 trillion market capitalization and posted 71.55% revenue growth over twelve months.

Intel announced its Crescent Island AI chip earlier in October. That product also targets a 2026 launch date.

Qualcomm has a market cap of $185.89 billion. The stock has gained 4.6% over the past year.

The company trades at a 16.39x price-to-earnings ratio. Revenue increased 15.82% in the latest quarter.

Recent results showed strength across business segments. Automotive revenue rose 21% year-over-year.

The IoT division expanded 24%. Handset sales grew 7%, driven by Snapdragon 8 Elite demand.

Qualcomm pays a $0.89 quarterly dividend per share. The next payment is scheduled for December 18, 2025, yielding 2.18%.

Analyst Outlook and Strategic Direction

Benchmark analysts maintain a Buy rating with a $200 price target. The highest analyst target reaches $225.

The company made several leadership changes recently. Dr. Jeremy Kolter joined the board and Governance Committee.

Patricia Grech became Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Neil Martin moved to lead Corporate Development.

Qualcomm adopted Arm’s ninth-generation computing architecture for PC and phone chips. The move could improve AI performance across product lines.

In May, Qualcomm announced custom processors using Nvidia technology. These chips will connect to AI accelerators in datacenters.

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