Qualcomm forecasts $15 billion in data center revenue by 2029

Key facts

• Qualcomm forecast around $650 million in data center revenue for the first quarter of 2027, $5 billion by the end of 2027 and $15 billion by 2029.
• The company confirmed on its Q4 2026 earnings call that it expects data centers to eventually account for around 30 percent of its business.
• The push follows partnerships with companies like Amazon and Meta announced earlier this year, and comes as The Verge describes smartphone sales falling by around 20 percent compared to 2025.
• Qualcomm's total revenue for 2026 was $10.4 billion, according to The Verge.
• AMD says it expects over 80 percent of its revenue to eventually come from data centers, a more data-center-heavy target than Qualcomm's.

Why it matters

Qualcomm is best known for smartphone chips, and the story is about the company leaning on a different market as that one weakens. The Verge describes smartphone sales falling by around 20 percent compared to 2025. Against that, Qualcomm's forecast climbs steeply: around $650 million in data center revenue in Q1 2027, $5 billion by the end of 2027 and $15 billion by 2029. A 30 percent eventual share of the business would make data centers a major part of the company. The Verge reads the targets, and AMD's, as a sign that there is plenty of demand and enough AI money to go around.

Who it affects

Qualcomm's investors and employees are the most direct audience, since the plan changes what the company is expected to earn from. Amazon and Meta are named as partners whose deals were announced earlier this year. Rival chipmakers are affected as well: The Verge points to AMD, which says it expects over 80 percent of its revenue to eventually come from data centers.

How to use it

This is a market signal, not a product you can adopt. For anyone tracking AI hardware, the checkpoints are the ones Qualcomm gave: about $650 million in data center revenue in Q1 2027, $5 billion by the end of 2027 and $15 billion by 2029. Comparing later results against those numbers shows whether the ramp is on track.

How solid is it

The revenue targets and the 30 percent figure come from Qualcomm's own earnings call, as reported by The Verge, so they are company forecasts and not results. The $10.4 billion 2026 revenue figure and the roughly 20 percent smartphone decline are stated by The Verge. The article does not say whether the decline is global-market or Qualcomm-specific, or over what period. It is also not stated whether the $5 billion and $15 billion figures are annual or quarterly revenue, or run-rate. The comment that the targets suggest plenty of demand is the outlet's own assessment.

Risks and caveats

These are forecasts and could change. No timescale is given for when data centers would reach 30 percent of Qualcomm's business. The terms, size and product details of the Amazon and Meta partnerships are not described, and current data center revenue and its current share of the business are not given. No Qualcomm executive is named or quoted. The AMD comparison is The Verge's framing; no timescale is given for AMD's 80 percent target.

“But it suggests there’s plenty of demand that needs to be filled and enough AI money to go around.”

— The Verge