Qualcomm Stock Surges 9% on First-Quarter Beat

Qualcomm stock jumped 9% in early trading after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter results and said it expects to ship custom silicon to an unnamed hyperscaler later this year. The move put Qualcomm at the center of Thursday’s semiconductor rally, with investors shifting toward chip names tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure spending.

9% was the immediate price reaction, and it came after Meta Platforms and Microsoft on Wednesday said they plan to keep raising capital expenditures on AI infrastructure. For chip investors, that left Qualcomm’s earnings beat and customer update doing more than lifting one stock; it helped pull the broader sector higher.

Broadcom, AMD, and memory names rose

Thursday brought gains across the chip complex, with Broadcom and AMD climbing higher alongside memory and storage names Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate. The move tracked the same theme that lifted Qualcomm: data center buyers are still spending, and component suppliers are pricing in more demand for memory chips and storage gear.

Wednesday’s comments from Meta Platforms and Microsoft also pointed to rising costs for data center components such as memory chips, which has pushed up the cost of memory and data storage. That set the backdrop for a session in which chipmakers linked to the AI buildout drew fresh buying, even before Qualcomm’s own results added another catalyst.

Qualcomm adds a hyperscaler angle

Later this year is the timing Qualcomm gave for shipping custom silicon to an unnamed hyperscaler, a detail that matters because it places the company inside the AI infrastructure supply chain rather than only in smartphones. The stock also got support earlier this week after Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities said OpenAI is working with Qualcomm to develop smartphone processors.

Current-quarter commentary on Chinese phones added a second line of support. Qualcomm said it sees that market bottoming in the current quarter, giving the shares a nearer-term demand marker even as the company leans into custom silicon and data center demand.

Agentic AI keeps chip traders engaged

Thursday’s rally came after semiconductor stocks had already been on fire in recent weeks as investors focused on agentic AI. The pattern is clear in the tape: Qualcomm’s 9% early gain was not just an earnings reaction, but part of a broader bid for chip makers tied to AI spending, memory demand, and custom silicon orders.