QCOM Stock Rises Premarket: CFO Touts ‘Well-Priced’ Shares After Amazon Deal And ‘Port Once’ AI Stack For Rival Chips

• Qualcomm touted Modular’s “port once” AI software for Nvidia, AMD and its own chips.
• Amazon received warrants for up to 25 million QCOM shares, with vesting linked partly to purchases hitting $60 billion over 10 years.
• Amazon revenue begins in the December quarter, supporting Qualcomm’s $5 billion fiscal 2027 data center target.

Shares of Qualcomm, Inc. (QCOM) rose 2% in premarket trading on Wednesday as CFO Akash Palkhiwala called the stock “well-priced” after an Amazon data center agreement and outlined AI software designed to work across Nvidia, AMD and its own chips.

QCOM stock jumped 3% on Tuesday to end at $174.09, logging its second straight session of gains. 

Qualcomm Pitches AI Across Rival Chips

Speaking at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia + Technology Conference, Palkhiwala called the Amazon partnership a “landmark deal” and said another unnamed hyperscaler engagement was progressing. “It is an opportunity to buy into a well-priced, highly diversified, and growing stock,” he said.

Palkhiwala acknowledged Nvidia’s CUDA software as a competitive advantage, but said Qualcomm’s acquisition of Modular addressed a missing part of its own AI offering. “What we were missing is a very modern stack that makes it extremely easy to port models onto our silicon,” he said.

Modular allows developers to deploy models across different chip platforms, including Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm, with support also extending to AWS and Apple, according to Palkhiwala. The software lets developers “port once and work across different silicon platforms without compromising performance,” he said.

Qualcomm is also pursuing an “Android-like approach,” making lower layers of the stack available across the industry. The platform will support both its edge and data center chips. “I think it was a missing piece that we have now resolved, and it comes at the right time as we start scaling our data center products.”

Amazon Gets QCOM Stock Warrants

Qualcomm’s AWS partnership covers multiple generations of customized silicon and optical connectivity products, with an emphasis on AI inference. Under the deal, Amazon received warrants to acquire up to 25 million Qualcomm shares at $161.26 per share. Full exercise would represent about $4.03 billion. The warrants expire Sept 3, 2036, and vest in tranches tied to commercial arrangements and purchases of up to $60 billion in Qualcomm data center products over 10 years.

Palkhiwala said about 15% will vest upfront in connection with Amazon’s initial commitments. “We’ll start having revenue with Amazon starting the December quarter, and so we’re already in production with them,” he said.

Qualcomm Eyes $15B Data Center Revenue 

Palkhiwala said the agreement increased confidence in Qualcomm’s $5 billion fiscal 2027 data center revenue target and supported expectations for strong growth in fiscal 2028. “We have POs, we’re building the chips,” he said. “So that’s very high confidence.”

Qualcomm is targeting $15 billion in data center revenue in fiscal 2029. Alongside Amazon and another hyperscaler, Palkhiwala pointed to Meta’s CPU deployment and HUMAIN’s use of Qualcomm AI accelerators. “When you add those four or five things that I outlined, you’re already very significantly on your way towards $15 billion, so it doesn’t take us a lot more to get to the $15 billion.”

He also emphasized that Qualcomm’s custom-chip engagements involve customers’ “main AI accelerators,” rather than ancillary products. Regarding the Amazon announcement, he said: “It is not the last one; it is just the first one.”

Qualcomm’s Auto And Smartphone Outlook 

Palkhiwala also highlighted automotive expansion, saying Qualcomm expects to become the largest chip supplier to the automotive industry next year. He said its $10 billion automotive revenue goal had been accelerated again, without specifying the revised year. In smartphones, he called the business at a cyclical low, with premium devices proving more resilient than phones priced below $300 as memory costs rise.

“Things can only go up from here,” he said, citing changes in the market and an eventual easing of memory-related pressures. Qualcomm targets 30% operating margins over the next three years, with operating-expense growth expected to trail revenue growth significantly. 

How Do Retail Traders Feel About QCOM?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for QCOM flipped to ‘bullish’ from ‘bearish’ levels a day ago amid a 1,205% surge in 24-hour message volumes.

One user said, “$QCOM can aapl event add up fuel to this rally tomorrow . If foldable device still rely on qcom modem means qcom will run 10 to 15 points easily.”

Another user said, “$QCOM all day consolidation today, upward movement tomorrow.  Solid gap up would confirm a strong movement upward to $200.”

QCOM stock has risen 11% over the past year. 

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