Oct 27 (Reuters) - Qualcomm ( QCOM ) on Monday unveiled

two artificial intelligence chips for data centers, with

commercial availability from next year, as it pushes to

diversify beyond smartphones and expand into the fast-growing AI

infrastructure market.

The new chips, called AI200 and AI250, are designed for

improved memory capacity and running AI applications, or

inference, and will be available in 2026 and 2027, respectively.

Global investment in AI chips has soared as cloud providers,

chipmakers and enterprises rush to build infrastructure capable

of supporting complex, large language models, chatbots and other

generative AI tools.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) chips, however, underpin much of the current

AI boom.

Qualcomm ( QCOM ), to strengthen its AI portfolio, agreed to buy

Alphawave in June, which designs semiconductor tech for data

centers, for about $2.4 billion.

In May, Qualcomm ( QCOM ) also said it would make custom data center

central processing units that use technology from Nvidia ( NVDA ) to

connect to the firm's artificial intelligence chips.

Qualcomm ( QCOM ) said the new chips support common AI frameworks and

tools, with advanced software support, and added they will lower

the total cost of ownership for enterprises.

The San Diego-based company also unveiled accelerator cards

and racks based on the new chips.

Earlier this month, peer Intel ( INTC ) announced a new artificial

intelligence chip called Crescent Island for the data center

that it plans to launch next year.