By Mackenzie Tatananni and Adam Clark
Excitement is mounting around Qualcomm's push into the data-center market. The company may be planning a major acquisition to complement the rollout of its artificial-intelligence processors, too.
Markets are looking ahead to Qualcomm's investor day on June 24, where the company is expected to reveal the identity of a major customer for a custom data-center chip and expand on its next-generation silicon plans.
J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee believes Qualcomm could target more than $3 billion in data-center revenue for fiscal 2027, with that figure potentially surging to $35 billion by 2031.
The firm has placed Qualcomm on "Positive Catalyst Watch," predicting the chip maker's upcoming financial targets will outpace Wall Street expectations. But J.P. Morgan remains sidelined on the stock for now, "awaiting evidence of execution to the outlined opportunities in an increasingly competitive market," Chatterjee wrote.
Qualcomm separately may be lining up an acquisition to bolster its efforts in the space. The company is in talks to acquire private AI chip start-up Tenstorrent for around $8 billion-$10 billion, The Information reported on Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Tenstorrent designs a range of flexible AI chips and software to run its processors, but the big appeal of an acquisition could be bringing on board its CEO Jim Keller -- an engineer noted for his chip design work at Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, and Tesla.
Even as its data-center ambitions take center stage, Qualcomm must contend with concerns over its smartphone business, which is navigating temporary revenue pressure triggered by memory supply constraints and inventory adjustments. The company also faces stiff competition from Nvidia in the PC chip market.
Shares pared back earlier gains and fell 0.7% on Tuesday -- still faring better than the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, which was down 1.4%. Qualcomm stock has gained 28% this year, beating out a 14% gain for the index.
Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com and Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 16, 2026 14:12 ET (18:12 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments