Daiwa upgrades Qualcomm to Outperform with $225 price target, betting on data center AI shift from smartphones.

Daiwa raised its Qualcomm rating from Neutral to Outperform on May 8, 2026, and increased its price target to $225 from $140—an $85 increase. Analyst Louis Miscioscia argues the market is undervaluing Qualcomm's transition from smartphone chip supplier to AI infrastructure participant.

The bull case centers on Qualcomm riding Arm-based AI inference trends as workloads shift from NVIDIA GPU-dominated training toward inference (the step where an AI produces an answer). The bank also cites Qualcomm's low valuation within semiconductors—trading at a P/E ratio of 22x versus NVIDIA's 43x—and flags the June 24 Investor Day as a potential catalyst for details on the data center roadmap.

Qualcomm reported Q2 FY2026 revenue of $10.599 billion, down 3% year over year, with non-GAAP EPS of $2.65 beating consensus. CEO Cristiano Amon stated that 'a leading hyperscaler custom silicon engagement is on track for initial shipments later this calendar year.' The company authorized a $20 billion buyback and continues a $0.89 quarterly dividend.