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Qualcomm is betting big on data centers as smartphone sales sink

By · Via The Verge · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The company plans to offset mobile declines by targeting surging demand across the artificial intelligence market. To drive this transformation, the firm is leveraging earlier enterprise collaborations with major technology companies Amazon and Meta. Financial forecasts indicate that data center hardware will eventually account for roughly 30 percent of the business, a notable shift after the firm brought in $10.4 billion in total 2026 revenue.

Key points

  • Data center hardware is expected to eventually account for approximately 30 percent of Qu…: Data center hardware is expected to eventually account for approximately 30 percent of Qualcomm's entire business.
  • Qualcomm is turning to artificial intelligence data centers after mobile smartphone sales…: Qualcomm is turning to artificial intelligence data centers after mobile smartphone sales dropped by roughly 20 percent from 2025.
  • Strategic partnerships with industry giants Amazon and Meta are directly supporting Qualc…: Strategic partnerships with industry giants Amazon and Meta are directly supporting Qualcomm's new infrastructure expansion plans.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

With smartphone sales tanking by around 20 percent compared to 2025, Qualcomm is looking to data centers to help boost its bottom line. During its Q4 2026 earnings call, the company laid out its plans to make a splash in the AI data center business, through partnerships with companies like Amazon and Meta announced earlier this year. The company expects that portion of its business to grow quickly, forecasting around $650 million in data center revenue during the first quarter of 2027. But it anticipates that will reach $5 billion by the end of 2027 and $15 billion by 2029.

Qualcomm is betting big on data centers as smartphone sales sink

Qualcomm expects data center chips will eventually account for 30% of its business.

Qualcomm expects data center chips will eventually account for 30% of its business.

Considering the company’s total revenue for 2026 was $10.4 billion, that would constitute a significant share of its earnings. It confirmed during the call that it expects data centers to eventually account for around 30 percent of its business.

That’s not quite as…

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