Qualcomm's big AI gamble: Breaking Nvidia's chips stronghold | Fortune

Qualcomm is positioning a five-year plan to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in AI chips for data centers, in a bid that builds on its broader push into automotive and other markets. Since 2021, CEO Cristiano Amon has reshaped the company, including technology for cars such as driver-assistance and connected-vehicle systems, as well as chips for smart home devices and wearables. At an investor day in Manhattan on Wednesday, Qualcomm unveiled new lines of AI accelerators and CPUs, projecting that annual sales from AI components in data centers would exceed $15 billion by fiscal 2029. Qualcomm also forecast $40 billion in annual revenue for businesses excluding handsets by 2029. Shares rose as much as 15% on Wednesday after the outlook, then largely faded by Friday amid broader Nasdaq declines. The company also announced a $3.9 billion acquisition of Modular to build a software platform aimed at competing with Nvidia’s CUDA.