Qualcomm accelerates data center push with new AI chips launching next year

Qualcomm on Monday unveiled two artificial intelligence chips for data centers, with commercial availability from next year, as it pushes to diversify beyond smartphones and expand into the fast-growing AI infrastructure market.

Shares of Qualcomm surged nearly 15% on the news.

The new chips, called AI200 and AI250, are designed for improved memory capacity and running AI applications, or inference, and will be available in 2026 and 2027, respectively.

Global investment in AI chips has soared as cloud providers, chipmakers and enterprises rush to build…