Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) is a business that many people thought they understood. It made the chips inside Android phones. It collected fees from phone makers who used its wireless technology. That was all they knew about the business. So when Apple decided to stop using Qualcomm’s parts and build its own. This made a lot of investors nervy. What else did Qualcomm have?

Well, as it turns out, a lot. Wall Street, all of a sudden, is now taking the firm much more seriously.

In just a few weeks, the company recorded some milestones. It landed its biggest AI deal ever, broke records in its car business, and held a major event in New York where it laid out an entirely new vision for the future. This led to bank after bank rushing to raise their price targets for their shares.

The Phone Business Was Always Plan A. Now There’s a Plan B, C, and D.

Qualcomm actually never stopped making phone chips. Its Snapdragon processors still power most Android smartphones. Meanwhile, in the last couple of years, the company has been building businesses in other industries. This includes cars, laptops, and factory equipment. The most recent, eye-catching one, AI data centers.

The whole point was not to be dependent on just one business. This is because the smartphone sales are not growing as the way it should, and one big customer leaving (like the way Apple did) can hurt the business badly.

Now, those new businesses are doing well. In the most recent quarter, Qualcomm made $10.6 billion in total revenue. The firm also made $1.33 billion just from selling chips to automakers. And this was 38% higher than the same period last year.

This is thanks to Qualcomm’s chips, which are being built into modern cars to power things like navigation, driver assistance, in-car entertainment, and connectivity. Its partnership with Stellantis, the company manufacturing Jeep, Ram, and Chrysler, is a key part of why the numbers are climbing.

The TikTok Deal That Shocked the Market

Major news came in recently for Qualcomm. ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, agreed to buy millions of Qualcomm’s custom-made AI chips to power its data centers. As a result, the stock shot up by 12% in a single day.

ByteDance wasn’t a small customer. The company literally runs some of the most-used apps in the world and needs enough computing power to do it. Having them sign on was so important for Qualcomm. It told the industry that the company now has a major hold in AI data centers.

The Big New York Event That Changed Everything

Qualcomm’s Investor Day on June 24 in New York was also defining for the company. The firm’s CEO, Cristiano Amon, came in with numbers that nobody expected.

The company said that by 2029, revenue from every other business apart from phones would hit $40 billion. That’s basically double what they had initially promised. And within that, data centers alone are expected to bring in about $15 billion a year.

Here’s what the firm announced at the event:

Qualcomm revealed something they called the Dragonfly C1000, a new processor built just for AI work. The device was designed for the kind of thinking AI systems do, like managing lots of tasks at once, handling complex instructions, among others. Notably, this is the type of work that Nvidia’s chips, which are supposedly the "best" in AI data centers, aren’t perfectly suited for. The firm is looking to take advantage of that. The chip goes into production in 2028.

The CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, showed up at Qualcomm’s event to announce that Meta had signed an agreement to use the firm’s new chips in its own data centers. I personally think someone running a company worth over a trillion dollars flying in to endorse your product in person is a big deal.

Qualcomm also bought a startup called Modular for about $3.9 billion. This is also important because one of the reasons Nvidia has been so hard to beat is that virtually all the AI developers in the world learnt how to write code just for Nvidia’s system. Modular, on the other hand, makes software that lets AI run on any chip, not just Nvidia’s. 

On top of everything else, Qualcomm raised its goal for automotive revenue to $10 billion by 2029. This is given that they just hit a record $1.33 billion in a single quarter;

What Wall Street is Saying 

The response to all this news from Wall Street was incredible. Within days, price targets were flying higher across the board.

UBS went from $170 to $235. RBC Capital from $175 to $250. Benchmark raised its target all the way to $300. JPMorgan, which had already been bullish way before the event, pushed its target to $265. Morgan Stanley, which had a Sell rating, switched to neutral and raised its target from $146 to $231. The firm even admitted to being totally wrong on the stock.

I think that’s a big deal. Analysts don’t like admitting they were wrong. But it wasn’t all bullish targets. Some firms raised their numbers while keeping cautious ratings. 

For example, Barclays lifted its target to $245 but still told clients that it still saw the company as a “show-me story.” This means they want to see the company actually deliver on what it’s promising before they fully commit. The overall analyst rating is still a “Hold,” with about twice as many cautious analysts as bullish ones.

Is the Stock Expensive?

I don’t think it is, at least not by the standards of the chip industry. Qualcomm trades at a much cheaper valuation than most of its peers, despite a strong rally in 2026. Other semiconductor companies trade at much higher price-to-earnings ratios. 

Qualcomm still has a “prove it” discount baked into its price, which means if the company hits its targets, there could be more room to run.

The company is also giving money back to shareholders in the meantime. It launched a $20 billion share buyback earlier in 2026 and raised its dividend, now paying out $3.68 per share annually. This is a yield that’s higher than most other chip companies.

The Risks You Should Know

There are still risks, and I think you should take note. Nvidia is not sitting still. It has spent years building not just great chips but an entire software world that keeps its customers locked in. Qualcomm is trying to crack that, but it won’t be easy.

Its Dragonfly chip isn’t even in production until 2028. The $15 billion data center revenue target is also a 2029 goal. A lot can change in three years; it could be in technology, in competition, in what customers actually end up needing.

However, I am still bullish on QCOM, given the developments outlined in this piece.

Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.