Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again.\u00a0In 2009, a “Double Down” signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia.\u00a0For the first time in years, that same “Total Conviction” signal is flashing for a company 1\/100th the size of Nvidia.\u00a0Continue \u00bb<\/a> <\/p>\n Qualcomm’s budding presence in the AI data center\u00a0business is not only undeniable, but meaningful. <\/p>\n It’s also an opportunity for volatility-tolerant investors. <\/p>\n Qualcomm makes a well-deserved splash <\/p>\n It shouldn’t come as a complete surprise. Qualcomm has been alluding to this next evolution of its high-performance, energy-efficient mobile processing tech (you’ve probably heard of its popular Snapdragon processor) for some time now. However, it plainly confirmed its plans to enter the AI data center business in October of last year, when it “announced the launch of its next-generation AI inference-optimized<\/a> solutions for data centers: the Qualcomm AI200 and AI250 chip-based accelerator cards, and racks.” It then expanded its AI portfolio last month, introducing the Dragonfly AI300 inference accelerator, which was designed with agentic AI in mind. <\/p>\n That’s also when the company confirmed that its Dragonfly C1000 data center central processing unit (CPU) will “power Meta’s next-generation server fleet, underscoring the growing importance of high-performance, power-efficient compute in large-scale scale-out environments” as part of a multi-generation collaboration. Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, in the meantime, will utilize Qualcomm’s HBC (high-bandwidth compute) chips alongside the AI200 and AI250 beginning next year, as the combination of this hardware becomes available at scale. <\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n This tech isn’t a mere replication of solutions that are already available from rival chipmakers. There’s a very specific reason Meta and Microsoft are interested enough to give Qualcomm’s solutions a shot when it’s the least-proven name in the business. That reason is efficiency, or more specifically, lower operating costs. <\/p>\n By directly connecting processing cores to high-bandwidth memory, Qualcomm says its hardware can deliver on the order of 4 to 8 times more computing performance per watt compared to existing GPU-based architectures, addressing one of the AI industry’s chief challenges at this time. <\/p>\n Growth ahead on many fronts <\/p>\n Qualcomm’s still something of an outsider within AI data center computing circles. However, the company’s forecast for a minimum of $15 billion worth of artificial intelligence data center revenue in fiscal 2029 (which ends in September 2029) isn’t outrageous in the least. The outlook from Precedence Research suggests that the global AI processor market is poised to grow from a little less than $58 billion last year to more than $146 billion by 2029, en route to a total of $550 billion in 2035. Qualcomm would only need to capture about one-tenth of the projected market to reach its 2029 target. <\/p>\n The fact that its technology is built to handle the relatively new demands of agentic AI matters, too. Precedence Research’s study also asserts that the agentic artificial intelligence market is on pace to grow from less than $8 billion last year to more than $32 billion in 2029, although it doesn’t anticipate that this sliver of the artificial intelligence industry will outright explode until the first half of the 2030s. For 2034, its expected market size is just under $200 billion. <\/p>\n All that being said, it’s arguable that investors are overlooking — and therefore undervaluing — Qualcomm’s future on the automotive and the Internet of Things (IoT) fronts. The company’s expectations that both its automobile-related and IoT (wearables, robotics, security systems, industrial automation, etc.) will more than double in size over the coming four years are realistic as well. <\/p>\n Qualcomm expects its revenues from sources beyond its mobile handset business to grow by an average of 40% per year through 2029, making it one of the hotter growth names of the next chapter of the AI revolution. <\/p>\n This might help: Although the majority of analysts only rate QCOM stock as a hold right now, their consensus price target of $228.57 is 33% above the ticker’s current price. That’s not a bad way to start out a new trade in this recently discounted stock. Just keep in mind that its volatility is likely to linger for at least a while longer. <\/p>\n Should you buy stock in Qualcomm right now? <\/p>\n Before you buy stock in Qualcomm, consider this: <\/p>\n The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a> for investors to buy now\u2026 and Qualcomm wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. <\/p>\n Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you’d have $370,332!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,272,280!* <\/p>\n Now, it’s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor’s total average return is 904% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 208% for the S&P 500.\u00a0Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. <\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/a> <\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of July 23, 2026. <\/p>\n James Brumley<\/a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/a> Image source: Getty Images. <\/p>\n
<\/a> Data source: Morningstar. Chart by author. <\/p>\n