By David Moadel
Publication Date: 2026-05-04 19:37:00
The April 2026 scoreboard for the artificial intelligence (AI) chip trade is in, and the winner is not the most-watched name on Wall Street. Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM | QCOM Price Prediction) stock surged 39.45% in April, decisively beating Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) stock at 34.87% and leaving Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM) stock far behind at a 17.19% gain.
The gap of roughly 22 percentage points between QCOM and TSM is the real headline. TSM is a massive chipmaker, yet in April the chip designers captured far more upside than the foundry that’s building the wafers.
That divergence signals how the market is pricing AI exposure right now. Architectural leadership at the design level is winning more than manufacturing scale at the foundry level, and Qualcomm stock just rode that preference to the front of the pack.
Qualcomm Wins April Decisively
Qualcomm stock closed March 31 at $128.78 and ended April at $179.58, an explosive month for a name that had been a relative laggard. Even…