Qualcomm Says It Will Ship Data-Center Chips to Major Cloud Firms This Year; Shares Surge 13% After Hours

Qualcomm Inc. said on April 29 it will ship data-center chips to hyperscaler customers this year, sending its shares up 13.46% in after-hours trading to $177.

Chief Executive Officer Cristiano Amon made the announcement on a conference call after the company reported fiscal second-quarter 2026 results for January through March. “As AI agents emerge, every platform roadmap is being reshaped,” Amon said. He added that Qualcomm will reveal the company buying the data-center chips at its Qualcomm Investor Day event in June.

Qualcomm reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $10.6 billion, down 3.5% from a year earlier, while operating profit fell 11% to $2.309 billion. The results were in line with market expectations. For the fiscal third quarter, covering April through June, Qualcomm forecast revenue of $9.2 billion to $10 billion, down 7% from a year earlier. That was below the market forecast of $10.19 billion.

Amon told CNBC on April 29 that he expects China’s market to recover. He said China’s smartphone market will bottom out in the April-to-June period and that customers’ inventories of application processors are running low.

Qualcomm plans to strengthen its push into artificial intelligence chips, an area where it has lagged Nvidia Corp. The company unveiled its data-center chip lineup in October 2025. On April 27, it also agreed with OpenAI to jointly develop AI chips for smartphones.

Amon visited South Korea on April 20 and met executives from Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. The trip was aimed at detailing cooperation on leading-edge 2-nanometer foundry processes and addressing memory supply shortages.

Lee Mi-a, Hankyung.com reporter, mia@hankyung.com