Qualcomm Is Remaking Itself Into an AI Company. Its Shares Look Dirt Cheap.

Many technology companies were off to the races when the AI boom first started, but Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) initially seemed slow to adapt.

Not anymore. The company has shifted its strategy toward artificial intelligence processors, applying its existing knowledge of edge computing to AI. It recently made a nearly $4 billion acquisition of an AI company to expand its reach for data center tech. No wonder its shares are up 66% over the past three months.

Better yet, Qualcomm's shares are still a great deal compared to the broader tech sector. Here's why it might be worth buying this AI stock right now.

Image source: Getty Images.

Qualcomm's big shift to AI

Qualcomm has been busy expanding its AI footprint, and a few notable shifts make the company's AI angle intriguing.

Most recently, Qualcomm acquired the AI company Modular in an all-stock deal valued at about $4 billion. Modular makes software that can run any AI model across many different hardware platforms. It also has an AI coding language.

The purchase means Qualcomm expands its ability to benefit from growth in the AI data center infrastructure market through software. Adding the new programming language could help it compete with Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and its CUDA language.

Nvidia is a formidable opponent, of course, but Qualcomm is taking aim at the AI inference market, where Nvidia is vulnerable. Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) have dominated the data center market for years, but tech companies are realizing that custom processors (which Qualcomm sells) can be better for AI inference and general tasks.

To help capture this market, Qualcomm just debuted its new Dragonfly C1000 CPU at its recent investor day, launching a powerful enterprise data center chip. The company is already inking deals with hyperscalers, with Meta announcing it has entered a multi-year agreement to use Qualcomm's processors in its data centers.

What's more, Qualcomm's management estimated that by fiscal 2029, the company will have more than $15 billion in AI infrastructure revenue. That's up from essentially nothing right now.

Finally, Qualcomm has been selling processors for everything from smartphones to cars for years. These chips are part of what's called edge computing, in which most processing is done on the device rather than in the cloud.

AI edge computing is likely to continue to expand as demand for advanced hardware increases. Consider that Apple, one of the world's largest hardware companies, touts on-device processing for its next-generation Siri AI software.

When considering its AI data center opportunities alongside its edge computing processors and other markets, Qualcomm's management recently said the company will have a $1.7 trillion total addressable market by 2030.

It could be a smart move to own some Qualcomm stock

There's no guarantee that all of Qualcomm's AI ambitions will pan out, of course. However, the company's stock is so inexpensive right now that it might be worth starting a new position in case things heat up for Qualcomm.

Its shares have a price-to-earnings ratio of just 21 right now, far below the tech sector average of 44. For a technology leader that's making smart moves into AI, that's quite a bargain.

Investors will need to keep a close eye on how well the company executes on its new chip deal with Meta and how much sales and earnings it actually brings in. They'll also want to keep watch to see how well Qualcomm uses its new Modular purchase to improve its expanding AI offerings.

Some of these things will take a little time to shake out, so investors should be patient as they wait to see how well Qualcomm executes on its plans. At such a low price, buying Qualcomm stock right now could allow investors to benefit from the company's big AI push.

Chris Neiger has positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.