Qualcomm stock surges 15% on AI momentum trade

Investing.com -- Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) shares jumped 15% on Thursday morning as investors rushed to back the company as a top contender in the AI market. The stock cooled off a little later in the day, but was still up 9%.

Trading volume reached 17.9 million shares, double the 20-day average of 8.5 million shares for this time of day.

The reason for the move wasn’t immediately clear. The last time the stock experienced a larger gain was on April 30, 2026, when Qualcomm said it would begin shipping chips to a large hyperscaler data center customer this calendar year, earlier than the fiscal 2027 timeline previously provided.

Earlier, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 Mobile Platform and Snapdragon 4 Gen 5 Mobile Platform, expanding its portfolio with capabilities designed for mobile experiences. The platforms strengthen Snapdragon’s mobile offerings with performance improvements and extended battery life.

The Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 delivers 20% faster app launches and 18% less screen stutter, along with 21% better GPU performance. The platform features AI-powered camera capabilities and includes the Qualcomm Adaptive Performance Engine 4.0. It supports 5G and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity.

The Snapdragon 4 Gen 5 provides 77% improved GPU performance and brings 90FPS gameplay to the Snapdragon 4-series for the first time. The platform enables 43% faster app launches and 25% less screen stutter. It supports Dual SIM Dual Active 5G connectivity.

Both platforms are set to power commercial devices in the second half of 2026 from global OEMs, including Honor, OPPO, realme, and REDMI.

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