✦ Alphawave and the Data CentreThin moat

Qualcomm (QCOM) — the future bets

Two point four billion dollars of interconnect, no disclosed revenue, and a chief executive saying it has already replaced Apple.

The newest bet is the least proven, and Qualcomm bought its way into it.

Nonreportable segments incl. Data Center, Q3 ($m)$54mRevenue Q3 FY25$165mRevenue Q3 FY26-$10mPre-tax loss Q3 FY25-$214mPre-tax loss Q3 FY26Qualcomm Form 10-Q, Q3 fiscal 2026; with QGOV
Revenue tripled and the loss grew twentyfold.

In June 2025 Qualcomm agreed to acquire Alphawave Semi for $2.4 billion, completing in 2026, for high-speed wired connectivity — specifically SerDes, the serialiser-deserialiser technology that moves data between chips fast enough for AI workloads to be worth running.1 Alphawave's co-founder Tony Pialis was put in charge of a Qualcomm data-centre division, and the technology sits alongside the Oryon CPU cores and Hexagon NPUs Qualcomm already had.

The logic is that AI data-centre economics are increasingly about moving data rather than processing it, and that a company with a good CPU, a good NPU and now a good interconnect can sell an alternative to buying everything from one supplier.

The competition is Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD and the hyperscalers' own silicon teams — which is to say, the most heavily contested market in semiconductors, entered last.

What makes it more than a slide is that the chief executive told investors after the June 2026 quarter that the data centre had "kind of replaced" Apple.2 That is a large claim for a business which, reported together with Qualcomm's government unit, had revenue of $165 million and a pre-tax loss of $214 million in that quarter, against $54 million and a $10 million loss a year earlier.3 In July 2026 Qualcomm added Modular, an AI software platform meant to run across hardware architectures, in a deal valuing it at about $3.1 billion in Qualcomm stock.4 The stated targets are $5 billion of data-centre revenue by 2027 and $15 billion by 2029,5 against $165 million a quarter today for the unit that contains it.

Watch the nonreportable segments' revenue: $5 billion in fiscal 2027 needs more than seven times the current quarterly rate, averaged across the year. Until it moves, this is two acquisitions, a widening loss and an ambition.

Moat trajectory: Widening

The Alphawave acquisition closed in 2026 and a data-centre division now exists with a named leader. It has no disclosed revenue, but a year ago it had no organisation either.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Nonreportable segments (mainly Data Center), latest quarter
Revenue $165M and a pre-tax loss of $214M in Q3 fiscal 2026, against $54M and a $10M loss

The data-centre business is growing and losing more; the loss narrowing as revenue scales is the test.

Source: QUALCOMM Incorporated Form 10-Q, quarter ended 28 June 2026 ↗
References
  1. ReportedIn June 2025 Qualcomm agreed to acquire Alphawave Semi for $2.4 billion, completing in 2026, for high-speed wired connectivity — specifically SerDes, the serialiser-deserialiser technology that moves data between chips fast enough for AI workloads to be worth running.
    Coverage of Qualcomm's acquisition of Alphawave Semi, announced 9 June 2025 and completed for $2.4 billion. Alphawave's high-speed wired connectivity and compute technology, including its serializer-deserializer (SerDes) designs for high-speed data transfer in AI systems, is being folded into Qualcomm's data-centre business alongside its Oryon CPU and Hexagon NPU processors; Alphawave co-founder Tony Pialis leads the division. — 2025-2026 · publ. 2025-06-09 · source ↗
  2. Third-party estimateWhat makes it more than a slide is that the chief executive told investors after the June 2026 quarter that the data centre had "kind of replaced" Apple.
    Android Headlines, 29 July 2026 - Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, in an interview reported by Reuters after the Q3 fiscal 2026 call: the company has "kind of replaced Apple with the data center" — July 2026 · publ. 2026-07-29 · source ↗
  3. ReportedReported together with Qualcomm's government unit, the data-centre business had revenue of $165 million and a pre-tax loss of $214 million in the June 2026 quarter, against $54 million and a $10 million loss a year earlier.
    Qualcomm Incorporated, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 28 June 2026 - segment reconciliation: nonreportable segments (QGOV and the Data Center business) revenue $165M against $54M and EBT a loss of $214M against $10M; completion of the Modular Inc acquisition on 28 July 2026, valued at about $3.1 billion based on Qualcomm's closing share price — Q3 FY2026 · publ. 2026-07-29 · source ↗
  4. ReportedIn July 2026 Qualcomm added Modular, an AI software platform, in a deal valuing it at about $3.1 billion in Qualcomm stock.
    Qualcomm Incorporated, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 28 June 2026 - segment reconciliation: nonreportable segments (QGOV and the Data Center business) revenue $165M against $54M and EBT a loss of $214M against $10M; completion of the Modular Inc acquisition on 28 July 2026, valued at about $3.1 billion based on Qualcomm's closing share price — Q3 FY2026 · publ. 2026-07-29 · source ↗
  5. Third-party estimateThe stated targets are $5 billion of data-centre revenue by 2027 and $15 billion by 2029.
    Android Headlines, 29 July 2026 - Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, in an interview reported by Reuters after the Q3 fiscal 2026 call: the company has "kind of replaced Apple with the data center" — July 2026 · publ. 2026-07-29 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 23, 2026