Qualcomm Inc. kicked off its biggest stock rally since 2019 after unveiling chips and computers for the lucrative AI data center market, aiming to challenge Nvidia Corp. in the fastest-growing part of the industry.

Shares in the semiconductor maker rose as much as 20% in Monday trading after it launched AI chips to compete with Nvidia..

Qualcomm announced the AI200 and AI250 and has plans to release AI chips annually.

Qualcomm had datacenter envy back when Intel ruled the bit barns of the world, and now it has it even worse now that Nvidia has shown how AI processing

Available beginning in 2026, the AI200 is both the name of Qualcomm’s individual AI accelerator and the full server rack it slots into, complete with a Qualcomm CPU. The AI250 is Qualcomm’s next-generation AI accelerator and server coming in 2027. A third chip and server are scheduled for 2028.

Qualcomm announced new chips for AI data centers on Monday, in a move that could mean more competition for leading AI chipmakers such as Nvidia and AMD.

Qualcomm's new AI200/AI250 inference systems could offset Apple revenue loss and drive growth. Click here to read an analysis of QCOM stock now.

The company is launching chip-based AI accelerator cards for AI inference and data center racks, and is counting Saudi Arabian AI firm Humain as its first customer.