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Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers raised his price target on Qualcomm (QCOM) from $160 to $230 on June 12, 2026, ahead of the company's Investor Day scheduled for June 24, Yahoo Finance reports. Rakers kept an Equal Weight rating but flagged a strong bull case, estimating Qualcomm could add $2.50 in earnings per share for every 1 gigawatt of data center power deployed using its silicon.
The upgrade comes at a pivotal moment. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told investors to "buy Qualcomm stock" just one day earlier, on June 11, citing Qualcomm's lead in low-power, on-device AI, according to Insider Monkey. Qualcomm shares have also drawn attention from JPMorgan, which placed the stock on a "Positive Catalyst Watch" ahead of the June 24 event.
Qualcomm's Investor Day Promises a Big Reveal
Qualcomm's June 24 Investor Day is expected to be a turning point. The company plans to unveil specific revenue targets for its new Data Center and AI Silicon businesses. JPMorgan expects data center revenue to exceed $3 billion by 2027, according to Insider Monkey. That would mark a dramatic shift for a company still widely seen as a "phone chip" maker.
CEO Cristiano Amon has been pushing this shift for years. He set a goal at Qualcomm's 2024 Investor Day of reaching a $900 billion total addressable market by 2030. He also wants non-handset businesses — like automotive and industrial AI — to make up 50% of revenue by that same year. Qualcomm is targeting $22 billion in combined automotive and IoT revenue by fiscal year 2029.
Wells Fargo Bets Big on Edge AI Chips
The core of Wells Fargo's bull case is Qualcomm's focus on "edge AI." That means running AI models directly on devices — phones, cars, robots — instead of in the cloud. This approach uses less power and offers faster responses. Wells Fargo's Rakers specifically highlighted Qualcomm's AI100 Ultra chip, which is now available on Amazon Web Services, as a key growth driver.
Unlike Nvidia, which dominates large AI training clusters, Qualcomm focuses on inference — the step where AI actually answers a question or makes a decision. Qualcomm's chips do this at a fraction of the power cost. With 50 billion connected edge devices expected to ship between 2024 and 2030, according to Insider Monkey, the market Qualcomm is chasing is enormous.
Nvidia's PC Push Creates a New Competitive Threat
Not everything is going Qualcomm's way. On June 1, Nvidia announced the RTX Spark (N1X) chip, a direct move into the Windows PC processor market. That is Qualcomm's turf. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite currently leads in premium AI laptops, but Nvidia's entry rattled the market and briefly pushed QCOM shares lower, according to Insider Monkey.
Analysts at IDC warned that Nvidia's new chip could disrupt Qualcomm's laptop momentum. MediaTek is also moving into the same space. Bears also point to Nvidia's CUDA software ecosystem as a major moat that Qualcomm has not yet matched. Qualcomm's current price-to-earnings ratio sits at just 22, far below Nvidia's, suggesting the market still has doubts.
The Macro Backdrop: Robots, Data Centers, and a $900 Billion Market
Qualcomm's growth story sits inside a much larger AI boom. Elon Musk has predicted at least 10 billion humanoid robots will exist by 2040. Each robot needs a chip that is fast, cheap, and power-efficient. That description fits Qualcomm's roadmap far better than Nvidia's heavy, power-hungry GPUs. Qualcomm has even explored sub-$300 chips aimed at making robotics affordable for small businesses.
For now, all eyes are on June 24. Investors want hard numbers — proof that Qualcomm's $45 billion automotive design pipeline and its AWS data center deal can turn into real earnings. Wells Fargo's new $230 target implies roughly 44% upside from where the price target stood before the upgrade. If Qualcomm delivers at its Investor Day, more analysts are likely to follow.
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