Qualcomm (QCOM) stock surged to a record $247.91 on Tuesday, closing up 6.8% after reports that ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, agreed to buy millions of its new AI-focused application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). The deal marks a pivotal win for Qualcomm’s expansion beyond mobile processors into the rapidly growing market for dedicated artificial intelligence hardware.
The chips will power ByteDance’s AI agent software, making the Chinese tech giant one of the first major customers for Qualcomm’s ASIC business. CEO Cristiano Amon hinted at such a pipeline during a recent earnings call but had not named partners until now. The news added fuel to a stock that has already delivered a 68% total return over the past year, giving Qualcomm a market cap of $258 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.85.
Wall Street analysts reacted positively. Bernstein upgraded Qualcomm to Outperform with a $210 target, citing leadership in AI-enabled smartphone processors, while Tigress Financial Partners reiterated a Buy and raised its target to $280, pointing to growth in AI agent devices, automotive, and IoT. Qualcomm also announced a $20 billion share buyback program, further boosting investor sentiment.
The broader semiconductor rally also helped. AMD posted strong earnings, and Nvidia’s comment that AI chip demand has “gone parabolic” lifted memory makers like SK Hynix and Micron. While the deals directly impact traditional tech stocks, AI infrastructure growth has indirect read-throughs for crypto projects in decentralized compute and AI-themed tokens, though no cryptocurrencies were directly named or affected by this event.
