Core Insights - Qualcomm Inc. is entering the AI data center market with new AI accelerator chips, aiming to diversify revenue and compete with Nvidia [1][3] - Bank of America maintains a Buy rating on Qualcomm with a price target of $200, highlighting the significance of the new AI chips [1][7] Market Performance - Qualcomm's stock rose 11% following the announcement and is up 22% year-to-date, although it still lags behind peers like Nvidia and AMD, which have increased by 43% and 115% respectively [2] Strategic Expansion - The expansion into the AI data center market is seen as strategically important, building on Qualcomm's momentum in automotive and IoT segments [4] - The acquisition of Alphawave enhances Qualcomm's high-speed connectivity and compute capabilities, focusing on NPUs and adjacent components for the lower end of the market [4] Revenue Potential - The non-GPU AI accelerator segment is projected to grow to approximately $114 billion by 2030, with a potential 5% market share contributing about $5.5 billion in revenue, representing around 14% of Qualcomm's QCT sales [5] Valuation Comparison - Qualcomm's stock trades at about 14.5x 2026E earnings, comparable to consumer-focused semiconductor peers but significantly lower than data center peers like Nvidia (32x) and AMD (43x) [6] Underperformance Factors - The underperformance of Qualcomm's stock is attributed to high exposure to Apple and Samsung, along with weakness in the smartphone market [7]