Qualcomm is making its debut in the data center hardware market with two new AI accelerator chips, the AI200, set for release in 2026, and the AI250, expected in 2027. Designed for liquid-cooled server racks, the chips focus on AI inference—running pre-trained models—rather than training them. Until now, Qualcomm has been best known for its mobile processors.
The move puts Qualcomm in direct competition with Nvidia and AMD. According to the company, the new chips are designed to offer advantages in power efficiency, cost, and memory capacity, supporting up to 768 GB per card. Early large-scale customers are already on board, including a Saudi operator planning deployments with energy demands of up to 200 megawatts. Following the announcement, Qualcomm’s stock price rose by 15 percent.
