Nvidia, AMD face new rival as Qualcomm launches next-gen AI chips

Nvidia and AMD’s dominance in the US market are at risk as Qualcomm launches next-generation AI accelerator chips.

The smartphone chip giant has unveiled “AI200” and “AI250”, making a major push in the AI market dominated by American chipmaker, Nvidia, and AMD.

These AI accelerator chips are expected to be released in 2026 and 2027.

The announcement comes as a blow to Nvidia’s dominance in the AI chip sector.

Following the move, the shares of Qualcomm have skyrocketed in the market as the smartphone chip giant witnessed 20 percent soaring on Monday, October 27.

Being a strong player in the mobile sector, Qualcomm is known for producing communication semiconductors and providing Android chips for smartphones.

AI200 chip which is expected to release in 2026, carries 768 gigabytes memory per card and can manage heat in densely packed server racks. On the other hand, the AI250 chip, expected in 2027, will be 10 times more effective in memory bandwidth.

The most distinguished feature of Qualcomm’s new accelerator is the deployment of lower-priced LPDDR (lower-price DRAM) instead of the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) which is found in AI accelerators.

Durga Malladi, Qualcomm’s Senior Vice President, said, “Our extensive software suite and support for an open ecosystem enable developers and enterprises to more easily integrate, manage, and scale AI models.”

The entry of Qualcomm in the data center market will challenge Nvidia as other tech giants, including Google, Broadcom, Microsoft, and Amazon are striving hard to maintain dominance in the market in the midst of the AI boom.