{"id":735286,"date":"2026-06-30T18:05:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/735286\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T18:05:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:05:25","slug":"qualcomm-is-the-most-underrated-ai-chipmaker-to-buy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/735286\/","title":{"rendered":"Qualcomm Is the Most Underrated AI Chipmaker to Buy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Qualcomm&#8217;s (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/quote\/nasdaq\/qcom\/\" class=\"font-bold hover:underline\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">QCOM<\/a> 1.44%) 51% total return over the past five years looks bad if you compare it to Nvidia\u00a0and Broadcom, which posted five-year returns of 920% and 720%, respectively. That gap is a consequence of Qualcomm&#8217;s late entry into the artificial intelligence (AI) chip race.<\/p>\n<p>But Qualcomm just shared some news that changes the entire investment thesis for the company, turning it into one of the most compelling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/stock-market\/market-sectors\/information-technology\/ai-stocks\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AI stocks<\/a> virtually overnight.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"AI chip\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"880\" height=\"512\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"h-auto max-w-full rounded object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782842724_892_.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Image source: Getty Images.<\/p>\n<p>What was the big news?<\/p>\n<p>Qualcomm issued a news release on June 24 that highlighted its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/d\/data-center\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">data center<\/a> strategy. It touted &#8220;multiple inflection points&#8221; it sees coming over the next three to five years. Management believes it can achieve long-term growth in the agentic AI era, and its aggressive goals reflect that. <\/p>\n<p>It boosted its 2029 guidance target to $40 billion, which is almost two times higher than the previous 2029 target. Qualcomm also told investors that it is aiming for more than $15 billion in AI infrastructure revenue from data centers by fiscal 2029.<\/p>\n<p>The growth is supposed to continue well beyond 2029. The news release went on to detail how data centers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/stock-market\/market-sectors\/information-technology\/robotics-stocks\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">robotics<\/a>, industrial AI, personal AI, and agentic AI are some of the catalysts that will continue to strengthen Qualcomm&#8217;s financials beyond fiscal 2029. CEO Cristiano Amon said the company is &#8220;in a strong position to capture these opportunities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The company believes it will have a $1.7 trillion total addressable market by 2030. This market size, plus Grand View Research&#8217;s projected 30.6% compound annual growth rate for the AI market through 2033, explains why investors are starting to get bullish on Qualcomm stock. <\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Qualcomm Stock Quote\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"w-full flex-none object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782842725_729_.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s Change<\/p>\n<p>(-1.44%) $-2.72<\/p>\n<p>Current Price<\/p>\n<p>$186.00<\/p>\n<p>Key Data Points<\/p>\n<p>Market Cap<\/p>\n<p>$199B<\/p>\n<p>Day&#8217;s Range<\/p>\n<p>$184.50 &#8211; $193.47<\/p>\n<p>52wk Range<\/p>\n<p>$121.99 &#8211; $259.92<\/p>\n<p>Volume<\/p>\n<p>508.8K<\/p>\n<p>Avg Vol<\/p>\n<p>22.2M<\/p>\n<p>Gross Margin<\/p>\n<p>54.80%<\/p>\n<p>Dividend Yield<\/p>\n<p>1.90%<\/p>\n<p>The entry into AI is already translating into more sales<\/p>\n<p>Qualcomm makes most of its money selling chips for smartphones, and the saturated condition of that market has weighed on the stock for years. Revenue dipped by 3% year over year in its fiscal 2026 second quarter, and it has woefully underperformed Nvidia and Broadcom despite the fact that all three companies produce <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/stock-market\/market-sectors\/information-technology\/semiconductor-stocks\/microchip-stocks\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">microchips<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>However, thanks to its new focus on AI, Qualcomm asserts that its phase of declining revenue and profits is coming to an end. The company has already announced two partnerships to make custom silicon for leading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/h\/hyperscalers\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hyperscalers<\/a>, though it has not named which ones they are. Its AI inference accelerators and application-specific integrated circuits give it the potential to rapidly scale up in the industry.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>It will still be a while before these shifts lead to meaningful revenue growth. For the current quarter (fiscal 2026 Q3), management is currently projecting a top line of between $9.2 billion and\u00a0 $10 billion, or $9.6 billion at the midpoint. That implies a 7.4% year-over-year decline from its $10.4 billion top line in the prior-year period. Meanwhile, the company has been rewarding investors with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/how-to-invest\/stocks\/share-repurchase\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stock buybacks<\/a>, which reached $5.4 billion in the first half of its fiscal 2026, with another $20 billion authorization recently announced.<\/p>\n<p>The valuation is a steal<\/p>\n<p>The way management is talking about its AI initiatives and winning deals with hyperscalers implies revenues will start growing in the near future. Investors shouldn&#8217;t expect the company to deliver 85% year-over-year growth like Nvidia or a 48% sales increase like Broadcom, but those two companies&#8217; track records demonstrate how quickly a chipmaker&#8217;s trajectory can change. <\/p>\n<p>The stock is trading at values that assume its AI initiatives will not be realized. Its 21.2 price-to-earnings <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/p\/pe-ratio\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ratio<\/a> makes it far more favorably priced than Nvidia or Broadcom. It also has a price\/earnings-to-growth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/p\/peg-ratio\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ratio <\/a>below 1, which usually indicates that a stock is undervalued.<\/p>\n<p>The stock&#8217;s rally may not happen right away. It may not even happen this year. However, Qualcomm has tipped off investors that material fundamental improvements will take shape in 2027 and beyond. The valuation doesn&#8217;t yet reflect that possibility, and those who buy shares today will even get to collect a dividend that at the current price yields 1.8% while waiting for the market to notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Qualcomm&#8217;s (QCOM 1.44%) 51% total return over the past five years looks bad if you compare it to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,74],"class_list":["post-735286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}