Gotrade News - The global AI infrastructure boom is reshaping winners across the supply chain, lifting Caterpillar power equipment sales to record highs in Q1 2026. At the same time, Qualcomm confirmed its first data center chip customer, opening a new front in the race against Nvidia.
Key Takeaways:
- Caterpillar posted Q1 2026 revenue of $17.42 billion, up 22% YoY, fueled by data center power demand.
- Qualcomm secured Saudi-based Humain as the first customer for its AI200 chip, anchoring a 200 megawatt deployment.
- Amazon lifted its AI chip shipment share to 7.5% in Q4 2025, backed by $200 billion in 2026 capex plans.
On Thursday (30/04), Caterpillar reported adjusted earnings per share of $5.54, well above the $4.25 reported a year earlier. The beat sent CAT shares up nearly 5% in premarket trading.
The Power and Energy segment posted 22% YoY revenue growth in the quarter. According to Investing.com, the unit benefited directly from data center clients ordering generators and backup equipment to support AI workloads.
Caterpillar's Construction Equipment segment grew even faster at 38% YoY. Higher sales volumes and pricing improvements drove the gain, although import tariffs continued to weigh on manufacturing costs.
Qualcomm Targets Nvidia in Inference
Qualcomm is officially entering the data center chip market with the AI200 and AI250 accelerators. Per HotHardware, both cards support 768GB of LPDDR memory per unit, with a near-memory architecture promising better power efficiency.
The first confirmed customer is Humain, a Saudi Arabia-based AI venture. Humain plans to deploy 200 megawatts of Qualcomm AI infrastructure in the Kingdom, with AI200 commercial availability in 2026 and AI250 in 2027.
Qualcomm's strategy targets inference workloads rather than training, which Nvidia still dominates. The rack-scale design with liquid cooling is positioned as a cost-efficient alternative for hyperscale operators.
Hyperscaler Capex Hits New Highs
The custom AI chip market is also heating up on the hyperscaler side. Per Motley Fool analysis, Amazon's AI chip shipment share jumped from 1.4% in Q1 2024 to 7.5% in Q4 2025 via its Trainium and Inferentia lines.
Amazon's custom silicon business hit an annual run rate above $20 billion in Q1 2026. CEO Andy Jassy said the unit could generate $50 billion in revenue as a standalone operation, with Amazon planning $200 billion of capex this year.
The hyperscaler capex surge is a cross-sector catalyst from chipmakers to industrial power suppliers. The trend validates the thesis that AI infrastructure remains in a multi-year expansion phase.
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