Qualcomm expects to generate $15B in data center chip sales by 2029 and raises its non-handset chip revenue forecast from $22B to $40B by 2029; QCOM jumps 9%+
Reuters
Context & Ripple Effects
Qualcomm had recently said a top hyperscaler was on track to use its components later in 2026, even as quarterly revenue declined year over year. The new outlook turns that customer progress into a much larger diversification plan beyond handsets.
Related coverage places Qualcomm alongside Nvidia and MediaTek as challengers to Intel and AMD in AI data-center CPUs. Its Dragonfly C1000 is expected to enter production in 2028, with Meta identified as an intended customer.
First-order effects
Qualcomm is materially resetting expectations for its non-handset business, targeting $40 billion in fiscal-2029 revenue, including $15 billion from data-center chips.
The forecast and identified Meta deployment give Dragonfly C1000 a clearer commercial path, while the sharp share-price move immediately reprices Qualcomm around data-center growth rather than handset exposure alone.
Second-order effects
Intel and AMD face another prospective CPU competitor for AI-oriented data-center workloads, while hyperscalers gain a further supplier to evaluate for future deployments.
Qualcomm’s planned acquisition of Modular would pair its chip push with a software platform; if completed and integrated effectively, that could make its data-center offering more competitive on software as well as hardware.
Third-order effects
If Qualcomm converts its forecast into deployments, AI data centers could become less concentrated around incumbent CPU suppliers, with more vendors competing for hyperscaler designs tailored to agentic-AI workloads.
The durable contest may shift from selling standalone processors toward delivering integrated hardware-and-software platforms that customers can deploy and optimize across AI infrastructure.
The trend: This is part of the broader effort by mobile-chip vendors to turn AI data-center demand into a second growth engine beyond smartphones.
Known for a long time Qualcomm has a deep and wide supply chain. This slide captures a lot of what Qualcomm has in supply chain leverage for customers who need it (I.e data center compute customers) 1m+ a year in leading node wafers. 2.5+m total wafers a year. $qcom [image]
$QCOM Qualcomm has unveiled an expanded diversification strategy at Investor Day, raising its FY29 non-handset revenue target to $40B, nearly 2x its prior target, with new goals of >$15B in data center revenue, $10B in auto revenue & >$14B in IoT revenue by FY29. $QCOM: +13% AH […
Satya's exact words around Qualcomm HBC: - we are excited about your innovation in the data center, especially around high bandwidth compute, and we look forward to building on that together. - HBC implements an innovative architecture with high memory bandwidth and integrated
$QCOM CFO presentation was the unlock. Up almost 10% on new revenue forecast with $15 Billion in expected datacenter revenue by FY2029. Like I've said. Qualcomm can win big by winning small. Just a 1-5% share of a trillion+ dollar TAM in datacenter infrastructure gets it there. […
We have been slowly building our own model of silicon content per robot but this idea of 4-5 SoCs, LOTs of fiber/interconnect, and an insane amount of analog/sensor is inbound. These slides from Qualcomm are helpful. Toward end of decade humanoids start to scale. $QCOM [image]
$QCOM CEO @cristianoamon kicks off its 2026 investor day: • Opened by framing this as a new chapter for Qualcomm and thanked the team and executives. • Noted the timing: this Investor Day marks five years since becoming CEO. • Said Qualcomm moved from a mobile-focused [image]
Signs of the times with a lot of the exec QA here at Qualcomm investor day. A company modeled to grow high single to low double digits a year is now signaling their business to double, much in part by AI data center growth. $qcom