Qualcomm (QCOM) in Talks to Acquire AI Chipmaker Tenstorrent for $8-10B; JPMorgan Lifts Target 65% to $265

Qualcomm is negotiating to acquire Tenstorrent, a RISC-V AI chip startup, in a deal valued between $8 billion and $10 billion, according to market sources. JPMorgan responded by raising its price target on Qualcomm shares to $265 from $160, a 65% increase, citing accelerating AI infrastructure ambitions. The acquisition buzz precedes Qualcomm's June 24, 2026 investor day, where analysts expect the company to unveil its first comprehensive data center roadmap covering custom AI chips, commercial CPUs, and AI accelerators. JPMorgan projects Qualcomm's data center revenue reaching $3 billion in fiscal 2027, scaling to $35 billion by fiscal 2031 as the smartphone chipmaker pivots toward AI infrastructure. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Tenstorrent is led by legendary chip architect Jim Keller, who previously developed AMD's Athlon and Zen processors and held senior roles at Apple, Tesla, and Intel. The company produces RISC-V-based AI training and inference processors via TSMC foundries, positioning itself as an alternative to traditional GPU architectures for cloud providers building custom AI silicon.