On April 30, pre-market, Qualcomm (QCOM.US) shares surged 12.37% to $175.3. Qualcomm released two major positive signals: First, its data center business achieved a breakthrough, with a leading hyperscale cloud service operator planning to adopt its chips later this year, helping Qualcomm enter the growth track of AI infrastructure; second, Qualcomm expects the Chinese smartphone market to bottom out in the third quarter and subsequently resume quarter-on-quarter growth. As China is one of its largest markets, this assessment is seen as a positive signal for the improvement of its smartphone business prospects. Following the earnings announcement, several major banks raised Qualcomm's target price, with JPMorgan increasing its target from $140 to $160.
