Qualcomm Q4 Revenue Falls 8% to $10.32B as Handsets Drop 26%

Qualcomm's fiscal fourth-quarter GAAP revenue fell 8% to $10.32 billion as handset chip sales dropped 26% to $5.137 billion, the company said on Nov. 4.

Non-GAAP revenue, which excludes items Qualcomm treats as unrelated to ongoing business, was $10.442 billion, down 7%. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $2.17, down 28% from $3.00. GAAP EPS was $1.17 against a loss of $2.89 a year earlier. GAAP revenue in the year-ago quarter was $11.27 billion. For the fiscal year ended Sept. 27, GAAP revenue was $43.12 billion, down 3%. CEO Cristiano Amon said non-GAAP revenue came in at the high end of the company's guidance.

Handsets Fall as Automotive Revenue Nears $2 Billion

Qualcomm's chip unit, QCT, booked $9.015 billion, down 8%. Handsets were $5.137 billion, automotive was $1.990 billion, up 89% from $1.053 billion in what Qualcomm called its first $2 billion quarter for the segment, and IoT (internet of things) was $1.888 billion, up 4%. Combined automotive and IoT revenue grew 36%, according to Amon. The patent-licensing unit, QTL, reported $1.304 billion, down 7%.

By Voltgrid's arithmetic from those figures, handsets were 57% of QCT revenue in the quarter, against 71% a year earlier. For the full fiscal year, handsets were $24.07 billion, down 13%, while automotive rose 52% to $6.004 billion.

Against Last Quarter's Guidance

Qualcomm's third-quarter release, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on July 29, gave the yardstick. It guided fourth-quarter revenue to $9.7 billion to $10.5 billion, QCT revenue to $8.4 billion to $9.0 billion, and non-GAAP EPS to $2.05 to $2.25. Actual non-GAAP revenue of $10.442 billion landed near the top of that range. QCT revenue of $9.015 billion edged past the ceiling by $15 million, and non-GAAP EPS of $2.17 fell inside its range.

Sequentially, handsets edged up from $5.086 billion in the third quarter, automotive rose from $1.588 billion and IoT from $1.830 billion. The year-on-year handset decline was 26%, compared with 20% a quarter earlier.

Guidance for the Quarter Ending December

For the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Qualcomm guided revenue to $10.4 billion to $11.2 billion, with QCT at $9.0 billion to $9.6 billion, QTL at $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion, and non-GAAP EPS of $2.15 to $2.35. The midpoint of $10.8 billion is 3.4% above the fourth-quarter non-GAAP figure. Qualcomm said the QCT guidance includes data center.

Amon said fiscal 2027 marks the start of a non-handset revenue inflection, with non-handset revenue projected to grow more than 60% and the data center revenue target of $5 billion reiterated. Against the fiscal 2026 total of $43.12 billion, $5 billion would equal about 12% of this year's revenue, by Voltgrid's arithmetic. The release also announced a multi-generational product collaboration with Amazon for AI data centers; its headline carries no terms.

Qualcomm warned of a broad rise in input costs across wafer fabrication, packaging, memory and other materials. It said it is raising product prices, with the full benefit expected in QCT gross margins in the second half of fiscal 2027.

What Is Not Confirmed Yet

The data center target depends on the AI200 and AI250 rack systems, which Voltgrid covered when Qualcomm's HBC test stack topped 5x HBM4 bandwidth per watt in a two-layer sample. The release gives no data center revenue for the quarter, no customer volumes and no terms for the Amazon work, so the $5 billion figure remains a company target. Voltgrid reported on Oct. 22 that Qualcomm's job cuts start in November; the release's headline results do not address them. Analyst reaction was not part of this report.