TLDR
- QCOM shares climbed approximately 4% during Tuesday’s pre-market session following news of discussions to acquire AI chip maker Tenstorrent for $8B–$10B
- The proposed acquisition would strengthen Qualcomm’s data-center strategy and add industry veteran Jim Keller to the team
- CEO Cristiano Amon disclosed that Qualcomm is developing over 40 AI-powered device designs, spanning wearables to smart eyewear
- The company’s June 24 investor presentation may unveil data-center revenue projections exceeding $3B by 2027 and reaching $35B by 2031
- Analyst consensus rates QCOM as “Hold” with a mean price target of $184.36
Shares of Qualcomm jumped approximately 4% during Tuesday’s pre-market trading session, reaching $228.09, following the simultaneous emergence of two significant developments — discussions regarding a major acquisition and the CEO’s presentation of an aggressive AI strategy.
This uptick extends an already strong performance trajectory. Over the last three months, QCOM has surged 68%, while year-to-date gains stand at approximately 30%.
The primary catalyst emerged Monday evening when The Information disclosed that Qualcomm has entered discussions to purchase AI chip developer Tenstorrent for a valuation between $8 billion and $10 billion. Both companies declined to provide comment when contacted Tuesday morning.
Tenstorrent specializes in developing accelerators designed for AI model training and inference workloads. According to the company, its processors execute specific AI operations with greater efficiency compared to general-purpose GPUs manufactured by Nvidia and competitors.
The acquisition’s attractiveness extends beyond technology alone. Tenstorrent is led by Jim Keller, a distinguished chip architect whose career includes significant roles at AMD, Apple, and Tesla. Securing his expertise would signal strong strategic commitment.
Negotiations remain active, with both valuation and final terms subject to potential modification.
Investor Day in Focus
Attention now shifts to Qualcomm’s investor presentation scheduled for June 24. J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee anticipates Qualcomm will unveil data-center revenue objectives surpassing $3 billion in fiscal 2027, expanding to $35 billion by fiscal 2031.
Chatterjee added Qualcomm to “Positive Catalyst Watch” while keeping a Neutral rating, pointing to an “increasingly competitive market” and emphasizing the importance of execution against stated objectives.
The company is also anticipated to identify a significant customer for its customized data-center processors during the presentation.
CEO Lays Out AI Device Roadmap
Appearing on CNBC’s The Tech Download podcast, CEO Cristiano Amon revealed that Qualcomm is currently developing more than 40 designs for innovative AI-enabled devices — including smart jewelry, camera-integrated earbuds, wearable pins, and smartwatches.
Amon also positioned smart glasses as a potentially transformative product category comparable to smartphones. He noted that annual shipments already measure in the “tens of millions” and could eventually scale to “hundreds of millions.”
Regarding agentic AI, Amon explained that AI agents will progressively manage sophisticated tasks spanning multiple applications and platforms. He illustrated this with an example: an agent that immediately retrieves banking transaction information without requiring user navigation.
“Those agents are going to be the new app,” he said.
Qualcomm has been systematically expanding its technology portfolio. In the previous year, the company completed a $2.4 billion acquisition of U.K.-based Alphawave Semi, obtaining technology that accelerates inter-chip data communication.
Market participants appear to be overlooking concerns about elevated memory component costs affecting smartphone demand, along with the potential risk of losing Apple as a modem client as the iPhone manufacturer transitions to proprietary chip solutions.
Analyst consensus stands at Hold — comprising 19 Hold ratings, 8 Buy ratings, and 4 Sell ratings — with a mean price target of $184.36, implying a potential 16.5% decline from present trading levels.
