Qualcomm's 'next phase' is AI rack infrastructure: CFO

Yahoo Finance · 2026-06-25

Qualcomm's 'next phase' is AI rack infrastructure: CFO Yahoo Finance Thu, June 25, 2026 at 10:55 AM EDT MSFT QCOM META Qualcomm ( QCOM ) CFO and COO Akash Palkhiwala joins Yahoo Finance Tech Editor Dan Howley to discuss the AI chipmaker's expansion into the AI data center industry with its new server rack. That is our newest toy. As as we outlined at our investor day, we just got into the data center business. Uh one of the ambitions we had in data center business is to build a rack scale infrastructure where there's a rack that takes our AI uh accelerator chips and uh and serves this to our customers. And so this is one way to deliver our products to our customers, way different than what we've done in the past. You know, we're used to be a smartphone company, now we're an edge device company and the next phase of Qualcomm is getting into rack scale infrastructure and this is the proof that we're doing that in real time. What is what does that look like then on on a revenue basis? What does that mean for Qualcomm going forward? Yeah, super exciting. I think uh one of the things we're doing in data center is we are building a broad product line. We're going to have a custom chip business, a connectivity business, a CPU business, and an AI accelerator business. And across these four, we gave a revenue target of $5 billion in fiscal 27, which starts in three months, and we gave her a target of $15 billion in fiscal 29. So very exciting, very different business for Qualcomm to be in. Uh but like we do in any other market we enter, we come from a place of technology leadership. We're bringing in tremendous innovation into these new products and so we're excited about how the customers are reacting to it. And you already have customers that you've announced that are that you're working with. You have Meta and Microsoft. Meta is going to be on the CPU side, Microsoft's going to be on the the memory side, right? Yeah, so Meta is uh we have uh a very close engagement with them on the CPU side. We're building a product based on the specs that they've given us. Um we have a 5 gigahertz CPU which is the leader in the industry and we're bringing that now to data center. Microsoft is very closely engaged with us on a new architecture that we announced today, which is called HPC, which is high bandwidth compute. Uh it takes it's a new way of packaging compute along with memory and it delivers the highest performance uh in terms of performance per watt and very high memory bandwidth. These are problems that needed to be solved for data center. and so when we brought that to Microsoft, there was very positive interest from them. So, very happy about the reaction we're getting from the customers, but it's just the beginning. You guys are also working on custom ASICs or uh custom silicon as as well and you said you have some hyper scalar customers lined up. Yeah, so what we said is we have uh two hyper scalar customers in and revenue for each one of them will be more than $1 billion in 27. And then that will appear as a new line item on on revenue. Yeah, that's right. That's right. It'll be uh these are global scale hyper scalars and so we're very happy to be partnering with them in addition to uh the other names you mentioned.

AI 시장 분석

Qualcomm has formalized its move into rack-scale infrastructure equipped with AI acceleration chips, launching its data center business in earnest. The company presented a portfolio composed of custom chip, connectivity, CPU, and AI accelerator, set targets of $5 billion in fiscal 27 and $15 billion in fiscal 29, and announced collaborations with Meta·Microsoft and multiple hyperscale customers. This accelerates Qualcomm's transition from a smartphone-centric structure to an integrated data center and edge systems provider and is likely to reshape the server platform competitive landscape. As a result, demand for memory, foundry, and networking is expected to expand, and competition for market share with incumbent vendors such as NVIDIA·Intel·AMD is likely to intensify.

상승 영향

Data center rack / rack-scale infrastruc — Qualcomm offering its own rack-scale infrastructure is a direct positive for increased demand for integrated data center hardware and higher rack equipment revenues.
AI accelerators / AI chips — Expansion of the AI accelerator business will promote adoption of Qualcomm's AI chips, helping secure share in server AI workloads and expand the ecosystem.
Server CPUs — Qualcomm's unveiling of a 5 gigahertz server CPU could generate replacement demand against Intel·AMD based on competitive high-performance and power-efficiency.
Custom ASICs / custom silicon — Custom ASIC contracts for hyperscale customers are favorable as large-scale bespoke orders create high-margin revenue streams and help secure long-term customer relationships.
Cloud / hyperscale providers — For hyperscale providers, Qualcomm's racks with improved power efficiency and memory bandwidth can deliver cost savings and supply diversification benefits.
Memory / high-bandwidth memory (HBM) eco — Collaboration with Microsoft on HPC architecture will increase demand for high-bandwidth memory, driving additional demand for HBM and memory module suppliers.
Connectivity / networking chipsets — Expansion of Qualcomm's connectivity business increases demand for networking and communication chips within data centers, benefiting related IC and switch vendors.
Foundries / semiconductor manufacturing — Server chips and large-scale rack production will spur orders to foundries, contributing to demand and utilization improvements at manufacturers such as TSMC.

하락 영향

GPU / AI accelerator vendors (NVIDIA, et — Qualcomm's entry into data center AI racks could disrupt the GPU-centric incumbent AI accelerator structure and put pressure on the market share of established leaders such as NVIDIA.
Server CPUs (Intel·AMD) — Qualcomm's high-frequency, power-efficient CPUs and custom designs pose a risk of partially eroding Intel·AMD's x86 server CPU share, which is negative for them.
Server OEMs and system integrators — If Qualcomm supplies finished racks and integrated solutions directly, traditional server OEMs and SIs could face intensified competition that pressures margins and win rates.

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