Qualcomm Dragonfly C1000 enters data center market, Meta 2028

Qualcomm is pushing further into the data center market with a new processor called the Dragonfly C1000, a chip the company says is optimized for AI agents and designed to deliver high performance at low-power consumption. Meta plans to deploy the processor starting in 2028.

What is the Dragonfly C1000?

The Dragonfly C1000 is a data-center processor optimized for AI agents and built to deliver high performance while using low power, according to Qualcomm; Meta plans to start deploying the chip in 2028. The announcement positions the Dragonfly C1000 as part of Qualcomm's second wave of offerings for data centers after earlier accelerator launches.

Qualcomm first showed up to the data center party last year when it unveiled its first two AI accelerator chips for data centers. The Dragonfly C1000 follows those accelerators and is presented as a more complete processor-level offering targeted at AI workloads that power agent-style applications.

Why is Qualcomm acquiring Modular and how does it fit?

Qualcomm is acquiring AI startup Modular for roughly $4 billion, a deal that pairs the Dragonfly C1000 hardware push with software that “lets AI applications run across different chip architectures,” Reuters reports. Modular’s software aims to make AI applications portable across CPUs and accelerators.

The Modular acquisition complements the chip announcement by addressing cross-architecture software needs. Qualcomm has emphasized both silicon and software in recent moves: last year’s accelerator announcements and now a processor explicitly aimed at AI agents, together with Modular’s portability tooling, suggest Qualcomm is aiming to reduce friction for customers running AI stacks on its silicon.

How big is Qualcomm’s data-center bet and what are the financial targets?

Qualcomm nearly doubled its revenue forecast for non-smartphone businesses to $40 billion by 2029, and it is targeting $15 billion from data centers alone, figures tied to the company’s latest strategy that helped drive a market reaction. After the announcements, Qualcomm’s stock jumped 15 percent in after-hours trading.

Those numbers frame the scale of Qualcomm’s ambition: the company is moving revenue guidance and investor expectations away from phones and toward infrastructure businesses, with data centers singled out as a multi-billion-dollar opportunity by 2029.

Why it matters

Qualcomm is shifting from being primarily a mobile-chip supplier to a contender in data-center silicon and the supporting software stack. The Dragonfly C1000 gives Qualcomm a named processor product aimed at agent-style AI workloads, and the Modular acquisition brings cross-architecture software that can ease migration or deployment on that silicon. If Meta follows through with deployment starting in 2028, that would be a major customer validation for Qualcomm’s new direction.

What to watch

Watch for Meta’s deployment timeline beginning in 2028 and for integration details between Qualcomm’s silicon and Modular’s software. Also track Qualcomm’s progress toward the company’s non-smartphone revenue target of $40 billion by 2029 and its specific $15 billion data-center goal.

Sources and data points used in this story are drawn from Qualcomm’s announcement and reporting that Qualcomm is acquiring Modular for roughly $4 billion, the company’s earlier accelerator launches last year, Meta’s planned 2028 deployment, and Qualcomm’s revenue targets and market reaction described in the announcement.