Qualcomm's stock pop shows investors are 'waking up' to boom in AI devices

Qualcomm shares surged 12% on Friday and are now up 75% in the past month, as the chipmaker's increasingly central position in the physical AI boom becomes more apparent to Wall Street. The stock is trading at a record.

Although Qualcomm has fallen behind giants like Nvidia in the race for chips to power AI models and workloads, the company is using its dominance in smartphones to cement its role as a key player in connected devices, whether it's eyeglasses, cars or robots.

OpenAI is also reportedly partnering with Qualcomm to develop an AI chip that could power a coming device run by AI agents.

"This company will be back in its former glory and will lead the connected device revolution," said Ivan Feinseth, an analyst at Tigress Financial Partners who rates Qualcomm a buy. Investors are "waking up to this fact," he said.

Regarding Qualcomm's work with OpenAI, Feinseth said he's bullish about the forthcoming device, calling it a "phone that will be an AI-based operating system that will do everything."