Qualcomm stock jumps after unveiling new AI chips to challenge Nvidia

Investing.com -- Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) stock surged 12% Monday after the chipmaker unveiled two new inference-optimized chips designed for data center artificial intelligence, challenging Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) dominance in the space.

The semiconductor company introduced the Qualcomm AI200 and AI250 chip-based accelerator cards and racks, targeting generative AI inference workloads with what it claims is industry-leading total cost of ownership.

The AI200 features 768 GB of LPDDR memory per card, while the AI250 employs an innovative near-memory computing architecture that delivers over 10x higher effective memory bandwidth with lower power consumption. Both solutions incorporate direct liquid cooling and support PCIe and Ethernet connectivity.

Alongside the product launch, Qualcomm announced a collaboration with HUMAIN to deploy advanced AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. The agreement targets 200 megawatts of Qualcomm AI200 and AI250 rack solutions starting in 2026, positioning Saudi Arabia as a global AI hub.

"With Qualcomm’s world-class AI infrastructure solutions, we’re shaping the foundation of the Kingdom’s AI future," said Tareq Amin, Chief Executive Officer at HUMAIN.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon added, "By establishing advanced AI data centers powered by Qualcomm’s industry-leading inference solutions, we are helping the Kingdom create a technology ecosystem that will accelerate its AI ambitions of becoming a hub of intelligent computing."

The 200-megawatt HUMAIN installation would translate to approximately 1,250 racks at 160 kW per rack, according to Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, who maintains an Outperform rating on Qualcomm.

"We still don’t know how much traction Qualcomm’s AI products will garner, but they are zero in our model, and offered zero contribution to the multiple," Rasgon noted. "Plenty of other names are benefiting from the ’small slice of a big pie’ thesis; perhaps it is not unreasonable to start giving Qualcomm a little bit of benefit from the same."

Rasgon also pointed out that while Qualcomm has sold AI accelerators for years, including the AI100 announced in 2019, these new products represent the first to bring a rack-scale architecture to the company’s offerings.

The move marks Qualcomm’s strategic expansion beyond its traditional mobile chip business into the growing data center AI market. The company has committed to an annual cadence for its data center AI roadmap, focusing on inference performance, energy efficiency, and competitive pricing.

Commercial availability is scheduled for 2026 for the AI200 and 2027 for the AI250.