Qualcomm Accelerates Push to Be Bigger than Smartphone Chips

By Dean Seal

Qualcomm is revving up a plan to outgrow its persona as a chipmaker for smartphones and become an all-around technology and artificial intelligence platform.

The semiconductor company said Wednesday that it now expects non-handset revenue to hit $40 billion in fiscal 2029, doubling its previous target, and that data center AI infrastructure should bring in $15 billion by that year.

Shares rose 11% to $219.50 in after hours trading.

At its Investor Day, Qualcomm said its diversification strategy is accelerating and that it has a roadmap for next-generation AI data centers, all of which will help it evolve into a platform company.

"Our presence across the entire compute continuum and unparalleled technology capabilities, in low-power computing, AI and connectivity put us in a strong position to capture these opportunities," Chief Executive Cristiano Amon said.

Within its new fiscal 2029 guidance for non-handset revenue, the company said $10 billion should come from its automotive division. $14 billion or more is set to come from its Internet of Things division, which includes $6 billion from personal AI and compute and another $8 billion from industrial, networking and robotics, according to Qualcomm. And more than $15 billion is projected to be derived from data centers.

By that fiscal year, which ends in late September of calendar 2029, handsets should represent just about a third of Qualcomm's semiconductor business, it said.

The company said AI compute will be distributed more and more across devices, edge and cloud over the next three to five years, including agent-ready edge devices and data center infrastructure. Multiple large markets are already reaching inflection points, it said.

Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 24, 2026 17:39 ET (21:39 GMT)