Qualcomm shares QCOM rose more than 8% on Monday as a decline in oil prices and Treasury yields helped lift broader markets, with investors returning to artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks amid renewed optimism over the sector’s spending outlook.
The combination provided some relief for growth-oriented technology stocks, whose valuations can come under pressure when borrowing costs and bond yields rise.
Semiconductor stocks rebound as AI optimism returns
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index gained about 4% on Monday as investors moved back into chip stocks following recent volatility.
Intel and Arm Holdings also posted significant gains, while AMD jumped more than 9%, briefly hitting $1 trillion market capitalisation.
Qualcomm’s gains came amid the broader recovery in AI-related shares, but recent developments involving major AI companies have also helped reinforce expectations for continued investment in computing infrastructure.
Jefferies equities trading analyst Jeffrey Favuzza pointed to several developments involving Anthropic and OpenAI as potential drivers of Monday’s AI-stock momentum.
Anthropic announced Friday that it would work with consulting firm Accenture to independently evaluate frontier AI models, referring to systems considered to be at the cutting edge of development.
Both companies expect to invest at least $1 billion in the effort over the next five years, according to Anthropic.
The Claude maker said embedded evaluators would receive access similar to employees to assess model development and deployment.
The partnership comes after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay earlier this month calling for a slowdown in the development of leading-edge AI models.
The debate has contributed to greater investor focus on AI safety and the pace at which increasingly powerful systems are developed.
OpenAI’s spending plans, Anthropic news reinforce infrastructure demand
Favuzza also highlighted a Financial Times report that OpenAI expects to burn through $278 billion in cash between 2026 and 2030 as it increases spending on computing power and infrastructure.
OpenAI expects its revenue to rise tenfold over the same period, from $36 billion this year to $350 billion in 2030, according to the report.
The company also expects to generate cumulative revenue of $840 billion through the end of the decade.
Anthropic is also considering launching a new AI model to counter OpenAI’s momentum following the release of GPT-6 Astra, Reuters reported, citing three sources.
The potential release comes as Anthropic prepares for an expected initial public offering and after Amodei’s call for a slower pace of development of increasingly powerful AI systems.
The New York Times separately reported that Anthropic could reach as much as $100 billion in annualized revenue by year-end.
Mizuho analyst Daniel O’Regan said in a note to clients that the latest developments around the two AI startups “reinforce expectations for sustained AI infrastructure spending.”
Amazon deal strengthens Qualcomm’s data-center ambitions
Earlier this month, Qualcomm received a significant boost when it announced that Amazon could purchase as much as $60 billion of its AI data-center chips and related products under a long-term partnership.
The agreement represents a major potential expansion of Qualcomm’s presence in AI infrastructure and supports its strategy of diversifying beyond smartphones.
Qualcomm granted Amazon warrants worth about $4 billion that vest as the cloud company makes product purchases.
The warrants allow Amazon to purchase Qualcomm shares at $161.26 a share, according to a regulatory filing.
The potential scale of the Amazon relationship has made Qualcomm’s data-center business an increasingly important part of the investment case as investors assess whether the company can reduce its dependence on handset demand.
StoneX maintains $270 price target
Last week, StoneX reiterated its Buy rating and $270 price target for Qualcomm, pointing to encouraging leverage in the company’s data-center business while acknowledging that demand across its broader portfolio remains uneven.
The research firm said confidence in Qualcomm’s strategic position is rising as its exposure to data centers broadens.
Management, however, is not forecasting a broad recovery in the handset market and expects conditions to remain difficult through 2027, even as it believes China’s Android market bottomed in June.
StoneX analyst Cody Acree said, “Overall demand remains uneven, but Data Center leverage is encouraging. While confidence in Qualcomm’s strategic position is rising as its data-center exposure broadens.”
The analyst added that management expects handset market conditions to remain challenging in the near term.
Qualcomm’s expansion into data centers and automotive applications is nevertheless widening its potential revenue base beyond traditional mobile chipsets.
Snapdragon Summit puts Qualcomm’s chips in focus
Qualcomm is also heading into an important week, with its annual Snapdragon Summit scheduled for Sept. 22-24 in Maui, Hawaii.
The three-day event is expected to place the company’s latest Snapdragon platforms in the spotlight, particularly its next generation of flagship smartphone processors.
Qualcomm is widely expected to unveil the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and a higher-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro, which are expected to power next-generation premium smartphones and other devices.
Reports have pointed to a possible transition to TSMC’s 2-nanometer manufacturing technology, although Qualcomm has not confirmed all reported specifications ahead of the event.
The announcements could be closely watched because smartphones remain a major part of Qualcomm’s business, even as the company works to develop new growth engines in data centers, automotive technology and AI-powered computing.
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