Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM, ETR:QCI)’s move into artificial intelligence data center chips could mark a pivotal step in diversifying beyond its slowing smartphone business, according to Bank of America.
The chipmaker last week unveiled its new AI accelerator chips, the AI200 and AI250, expanding its product line and footprint into the fast-growing data center market.
Bank of America estimates that market could reach $114 billion by 2030.
“This announcement is a needed diversification away from the low growth smartphone market,” analysts wrote, noting that roughly 75% of Qualcomm’s chip revenue still comes from mobile devices.
Shares of Qualcomm are up 22% year-to-date, though they continue to lag behind Nvidia and AMD, which have gained 43% and 115%, respectively.
Bank of America said Qualcomm’s expansion “strengthens its diversification roadmap,” building on its prior moves into automotive and Internet-of-Things markets. The company’s recent acquisition of Alphawave adds high-speed connectivity and compute capabilities that complement its power-efficient CPU and NPU (Neural Processing Unit) cores.
While Qualcomm is currently targeting the lower end of the AI accelerator market, BofA expects its portfolio will evolve and expand. Even a modest 5% share of the projected non-GPU AI accelerator market could generate about $5.5 billion in annual revenue by 2030, or roughly 14% of Qualcomm’s chip division sales, analysts highlighted.
Despite the new growth prospects, Bank of America noted that the 2026 opportunity remains limited with only one key deal and the need for Qualcomm to prove its technical execution.
“High exposure to Apple’s expected declines and risks of losing parts of Samsung’s business explain Qualcomm’s stock underperformance and low valuation,” BofA wrote.
“We believe these factors make the stock interesting for investors given the potential for total addressable market expansion and share gains.”