Qualcomm’s headquarters in La Jolla, San Diego (file photo; not from today’s trading). Photo: Coolcaesar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Qualcomm shares dropped 11.2% in premarket trading on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, after the chipmaker’s fourth-quarter smartphone chip sales missed Wall Street estimates and its near-term outlook highlighted a continued fade in Apple-related product revenue, Reuters reported. The decline helped drag semiconductor peers and the Nasdaq lower at the open as investors weighed soft handset demand against Qualcomm’s push into automotive and data-center chips.
Results beat, but handsets are the problem
Qualcomm reported fiscal fourth-quarter results after the close on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Non-GAAP revenue was $10.44 billion and non-GAAP earnings were $2.17 a share, according to the company’s earnings presentation and CNBC’s tally versus LSEG consensus of $2.16. That topped estimates on the bottom line even as company revenue fell 7% from a year earlier.
The miss that rattled the stock was in smartphones. Qualcomm’s QCT handset revenue fell 26% year over year to $5.14 billion, the company said. CNBC reported that figure trailed a StreetAccount estimate of $5.21 billion; Channel News Asia, citing Visible Alpha, said analysts had expected about $5.25 billion. QCT overall revenue was $9.02 billion, down 8% from a year earlier, while QTL licensing revenue was $1.30 billion, down 7%.
Management pointed to industry-wide memory constraints that are lifting device prices and crimping demand. Global smartphone shipments fell 20% in the September quarter to a 14-year low, according to Counterpoint Research as cited by Channel News Asia. Qualcomm raised product prices in September, CNBC reported, but handset chip sales still declined sharply.
Guidance and the Apple ramp-down
For the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Qualcomm guided non-GAAP revenue to $10.4 billion to $11.2 billion and non-GAAP EPS to $2.15 to $2.35. Analysts expected EPS of $2.27 on revenue of about $10.48 billion, CNBC reported, citing LSEG. The midpoint of the EPS range sits a touch below that consensus; the revenue midpoint is slightly above it.
CFO comments on the call, as summarized in market notes, said QCT handset revenue is expected to decline a mid-single-digit percentage sequentially as Android growth is offset by the continued ramp-down in Apple product revenue. Channel News Asia reported that CEO Cristiano Amon said the December-quarter forecast includes no further Apple product sales. Qualcomm separately said it has completed long-term QTL license renewals with Apple, Huawei and Transsion, and that QTL’s revenue run rate remains unchanged.
By the numbers: diversification vs. the handset hole
The diversification story is real in the company’s own tables. Automotive QCT revenue hit a record $1.99 billion in the quarter, up 89% year over year, the first $2 billion automotive quarter on Qualcomm’s books. IoT revenue rose 4% to $1.89 billion. Combined non-handset QCT revenue grew 36% year over year. TBR calculations from the earnings presentation show handsets still accounted for about 57% of QCT revenue in the quarter ($5.14 billion of $9.02 billion), down from about 71% a year earlier ($6.96 billion of $9.82 billion).
Looking ahead, Qualcomm said it expects non-handset QCT revenue across automotive, IoT and data center to grow more than 60% year over year in fiscal 2027, and for non-handset revenue to represent more than half of QCT sales in the fiscal year. Data-center revenue is guided above $650 million in the December quarter as custom silicon shipments begin, per the company’s presentation. Amon told CNBC the company sees a path to about $5 billion of data-center revenue in fiscal 2027 and said supply, not demand, is the constraint: “We don’t have a demand issue; it’s a supply issue.”
Why the stock and the Nasdaq are reacting
Investors treated the handset miss and Apple fade as the headline, not the diversification pitch. Yahoo Finance said Qualcomm was down more than 10% before the open despite the quarterly beat, and that the Roundhill Memory ETF was down about 6% as Micron and other memory names tumbled. The iShares Semiconductor ETF fell nearly 4% premarket, with Nvidia, Broadcom, Intel and AMD lower, Yahoo Finance reported. That pressure showed up in the cash open: Reuters said the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.77% at the bell to 25,537.57 while the Dow rose 0.62%.
The tape is also digesting political risk around AI infrastructure after Democrats’ midterm sweep, a theme already visible in The Boston Report’s coverage of AMD’s data-center earnings and Wednesday’s broader stock market rally. Reuters cited BCA Research analysts warning that tighter data-center restrictions in states such as Texas, Georgia and Ohio could constrain future compute supply. Against that backdrop, a soft phone-chip outlook from one of the largest smartphone semiconductor suppliers added another reason for growth investors to rotate.
What comes next for Qualcomm watchers
Near-term, the stock’s path hinges on whether December-quarter handset revenue stabilizes as Android volumes improve and whether data-center shipments clear the $650 million-plus bar. The company also pointed to an Amazon multi-generation custom-silicon and optical-connectivity collaboration that includes warrants covering up to $60 billion in potential purchases over 10 years, with 15% vested immediately on initial commitments, according to the earnings presentation. Separately, Qualcomm said SpaceX selected its Dragonwing cellular infrastructure platforms for Starlink Mobile’s U.S. terrestrial 5G buildout.
For business and finance readers tracking the chip cycle, Thursday’s move is less about one print and more about the handoff from phones to cars, IoT and AI infrastructure. Memory costs, Apple’s modem shift and election-driven scrutiny of data centers are all landing in the same week. Investors will also watch Friday’s jobs report and any further comments from the Federal Reserve for clues on how long elevated rates can coexist with a handset downturn. Prior chip shocks this season, including Intel’s forecast-driven slide, show how quickly semiconductor multiples reprice when guidance disappoints.
Sources
- Qualcomm — FY2026 fourth-quarter earnings presentation (Nov. 4, 2026)
- CNBC — Qualcomm Q4 2026 earnings and guidance vs. estimates
- Reuters via Investing.com — Qualcomm −11.2% premarket; chip peers
- Channel News Asia / Reuters — handset miss, Apple ramp-down, Counterpoint shipments
- Yahoo Finance — Qualcomm, SOXX and memory ETF premarket moves
Additional sources
- Reuters via StreetInsider — Nasdaq open levels (Nov. 5, 2026)
- StockAnalysis — Qualcomm Q4 2026 earnings call transcript excerpts
- Longbridge market notes — Qualcomm call highlights on handsets and data center
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