Qualcomm's AI Pivot Gathers Speed as Hyperscaler Deal and Wearable Vision Converge

Qualcomm stock hits 52-week high at €200 as auto revenue jumps 38%, data-center chips ship to hyperscaler, and $20B buyback announced. Investor day on June 24 looms.

Qualcomm is no longer content to be defined by the smartphone cycle. The chipmaker's stock has surged nearly 80% from its spring trough, hitting a fresh 52-week high of €200.05 on Monday as investors buy into a narrative that stretches far beyond handsets. The relative strength index now sits at 72.7 — elevated but not yet in extreme territory — and the next big test comes on June 24, when management hosts its investor day to flesh out the roadmap.

The Immediate Firepower: Hyperscalers, Tariffs and Share Buybacks

Short-term catalysts are already providing plenty of momentum. CEO Cristiano Amon confirmed that Qualcomm's data-centre processors will ship to a major hyperscaler customer before the end of the year, a statement that reframes the company as a serious infrastructure player rather than just a mobile chip supplier. That news was reinforced by the 90-day tariff truce between the US and China, which removes a key overhang that had forced Qualcomm to issue conservative guidance due to inventory adjustments among Chinese handset clients.

The financial firepower is also hard to ignore: the board authorised a $20 billion share repurchase programme, underscoring confidence in the long-term direction. On Monday the stock put in a 7.61% gain at €200.05, though the secondary article notes it was trading at €191.22 with a 2.86% advance, suggesting intraday volatility — the exact closing price depends on the time of each report.

Automotive Hits an Inflection Point

The strongest proof of Qualcomm's diversification comes from the auto segment. Revenue in the second fiscal quarter jumped 38% year-on-year to a record $1.326 billion, pushing the division past a $5 billion annualised run rate for the first time. This is the kind of tangible evidence that analysts have been demanding for years. The auto pipeline is now a meaningful growth engine, not a distant promise, and it helps explain why the stock is being revalued as a multi-platform AI connectivity play rather than a cyclical chip supplier.

The Long View: AI Wearables and a $22 Billion Target

Amon is already looking further ahead. He envisions a world in which the smartphone recedes and autonomous AI agents live on wearable devices — glasses, jewellery, pins, pendants. Qualcomm is working with "virtually all" major AI companies, including OpenAI and Meta, on new form factors that remain under wraps for now. The goal is to grow the non-handset business to $22 billion in revenue by 2029, a figure that would fundamentally alter the company's earnings profile.

The hyperscaler timeline has also been pulled forward. Amon said the cloud chips will ship earlier than originally planned, with full details to be revealed at the investor day. That event will be crucial for convincing the market that the wearable and data-centre stories have legs beyond a single announcement.

Headwinds That Could Slow the Story

Not everything is lining up. Qualcomm faces stiff competition for cutting-edge manufacturing capacity: Apple has reportedly secured a large slice of early 2-nanometre output at TSMC, potentially limiting availability for other clients including Qualcomm. There is also uncertainty around a rumoured OpenAI smartphone chip, with analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggesting the custom silicon order may go solely to MediaTek rather than the joint Qualcomm-MediaTek effort initially reported.

Meanwhile, the legacy smartphone business remains a drag. Management guided for third-quarter revenue of $9.2 billion to $10.0 billion, citing ongoing inventory corrections in China. The stock is pricing in a lot of future success — the June investor day will need to show how AI glasses, server chips and automotive electronics translate into a durable growth trajectory that justifies the current premium.