Qualcomm Aims to Challenge NVIDIA's AI Chip Dominance, Expects Data Center AI Component Annual Sales to Exceed $15 Billion in FY 2029

BlockBeats News, June 27th, according to Fortune report, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon is attempting to shift the company from a reliance on smartphone chips to diversified businesses such as AI chips, automotive, PC, smart home, and wearables, with the next focus on the data center AI chip market to challenge NVIDIA's long-standing dominance. At an Investor Day event held in Manhattan this Wednesday, Qualcomm unveiled its latest AI accelerator and CPU product line. Amon stated that there are often questions from the outside world about whether Qualcomm is too late in the fiercely competitive AI chip market, but he said, "For Qualcomm, it's never too late."

Qualcomm expects that by the 2029 fiscal year, its data center AI component annual sales will exceed $15 billion. Driven by this, Qualcomm's stock price rose by 15% on Wednesday, but as of Friday, most of the related gains had been retraced due to the sell-off of large-cap tech stocks on the Nasdaq. Qualcomm also predicts that by 2029, revenue from non-smartphone businesses will reach $40 billion, twice the long-term forecast from two years ago, demonstrating the company's efforts to reduce reliance on smartphone chips are making progress. Amon stated that the public's concerns about the massive energy consumption of AI and data centers actually provide an opportunity for Qualcomm to differentiate itself through high-efficiency CPUs and other products.

In addition, Qualcomm announced this week a $3.9 billion acquisition of the AI software company, Modular, to gain a software platform that can compete with NVIDIA's CUDA. CUDA enables developers to create AI programs and leverage NVIDIA GPUs to the fullest, which is also a key reason many developers continue to stay in the NVIDIA ecosystem; Modular is seen as Qualcomm's attempt to weaken NVIDIA's software advantage. Amon stated that Qualcomm has a very strong engineering culture and is not afraid to take on new challenges. He said that since 2021, the company has undergone several business transformations, including directions in automotive, PC chips, and industrial applications, and is now entering a similar phase.