Nvidia Inches Lower. What Qualcomm’s AI Chip Entry Means for the Stock.
By Adam Clark
Oct 28, 2025, 6:59 am EDT
Nvidia’s shares were down 0.1% in premarket trading, following a 2.8% rise on Monday, as investors assessed new competition.
Qualcomm entered the AI chip market with its AI200 and AI250, set to ship in 2026 and 2027, respectively.
Analysts suggest Qualcomm’s AI chip specifications are lower than Nvidia’s and AMD’s, and its software stack needs development.
Nvidia was edging down early on Tuesday as investors gauged the competitive threat posed by Qualcomm’s artificial-intelligence chips.
Nvidia shares were down 0.1% at $191.33 in premarket trading. The stock rose 2.8% on Monday and is close to its record closing high of $192.57.
Among other chip makers, Advanced Micro Devices was down 1% and Broadcom was rising 0.5% in premarket trading.
One factor affecting the sector is Qualcomm’s entry into the AI chip market, announced on Monday. Qualcomm’s AI200 will start shipping next year followed by the AI250 in 2027, with the first customer being Humain, an AI company established by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
However, it’s not clear whether Qualcomm’s products are likely to gain traction with the major cloud-computing companies that are fueling business for Nvidia.
“The specifications for Qualcomm’s products seem to be much lower than those of Nvidia and even AMD,” wrote Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes in a research note. “The key for Qualcomm from here is whether any other non-Sovereign customers will be interested, indicating broader adoption.”
Nvidia is already facing multiple competitive challenges. Broadcom said last month it expects clients to make more use of its hardware in the future at the expense of Nvidia’s graphics-processing units.
However, Wall Street analysts are generally backing Nvidia to remain the leader even if it loses some of the roughly 90% market share it owns. Nvidia has a key advantage, which is that developers are familiar with its CUDA software.
“While Qualcomm have one of the key ingredients to be successful in making AI chips (chip designers), they still have to buildout/mature their software stack and also their networking capability to be competitive vs the leader Nvidia and fast follower AMD,” wrote BNP Paribas senior analyst David O’Connor in a research note.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com |
