Google parent reveals $548 million bet on beaten-down chip stock

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL, Financials) announced a nearly $548 million position in Qualcomm on, underscoring its investments outside of Google's primary lines of business.The filing said the corporation had approximately 3 million shares of Qualcomm as of September.Alphabet also upped its stake in SpaceX to over 555 million shares from 551.2 million earlier. On the announcement, shares of Qualcomm were up more than 3% in premarket trade.This comes following a revelation from Qualcomm that declining sales of smartphone chips had raised concerns about demand in its biggest sector.But Qualcomm is making a push into the AI data center space, where it sees better revenue potential.Alphabet's stake offers it financial exposure to that transition, but the filing does not clarify whether the two businesses intend to engage in any commercial cooperation.Alphabet's larger stake in SpaceX also increases its exposure to satellite communications and other infrastructure sectors.The holdings provide investors a look into Alphabet's strategy for making big bets outside of advertising and cloud services.The next catalyst will be any further disclosure regarding these positions or Qualcomm's efforts in developing its data-center business. View Comments