| | | CNBC: Qualcomm reports earnings, revenue beat and issues strong forecast
PUBLISHED WED, NOV 5 2025 4:02 PM ESTUPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Ari Levy @LEVYNEWS
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KEY POINTS
- Qualcomm reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter.
- The chipmaker has been trying to elbow its way into the artificial intelligence boom, which has to date been dominated by Nvidia.
- Qualcomm's stock has underperformed the Nasdaq this year, while Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices have notched much steeper gains.
In this article
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon delivers a keynote speech at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan May 19, 2025.
Ann Wang | Reuters
Qualcomm reported fiscal fourth-quarter results on Wednesday that beat analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines.
Here's how the company did, compared with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $3.00 adjusted vs. $2.88 expected
- Revenue: $11.27 billion vs. $10.79 billion expected
Revenue rose 10% from $10.24 billion a year earlier, Qualcomm said in a statement. Due to an income tax expense, the company recorded a net loss of $3.12 billion, or $2.89 a share, after reporting net income a year earlier of $2.92 billion, or $2.59 per share.
For the fiscal first quarter, Qualcomm said it expects revenue of $11.8 billion to $12.6 billion, or $12.2 billion at the middle of the range. That exceeded the average analyst estimate of $11.62 billion, according to LSEG. Adjusted EPS will be $3.30 to $3.50, the company said, while analysts expected earnings of $3.31 per share.
The company has long been a dominant provider of mobile phone chips, including the central processor and modem for high-end devices made by Samsung and modems for Apple iPhones.
Qualcomm expects to lose Apple as a customer for its modem business in the coming years, and has been working to diversify by making chips for other devices such as Windows PCs and virtual-reality headsets and smart glasses from Meta.
But the biggest opportunity is in artificial intelligence, where Nvidia has run away with the processor market and Advanced Micro Devices is trying to play catchup.
Last week, Qualcomm announced that it will release new AI accelerator chips, a disclosure that boosted the stock 11%. Qualcomm said that both the AI200, which will go on sale in 2026, and the AI250, planned for 2027, can come in a system that fills up a full, liquid-cooled server rack.
Nvidia and AMD offer their graphics processing units, or GPUs, in full-rack systems that allow as many as 72 chips to act as one computer. AI labs need that computing power to run the most advanced models.
Qualcomm shares are up 17% for the year as of Wednesday's close, trailing the Nasdaq's 22% gain. Nvidia and AMD, meanwhile, are up 45% and 112%, respectively.
Revenue in Qualcomm's handsets business rose 14% to $6.96 billion in the latest quarter. Sales in the automotive unit increased 17% to $1.05 billion. Qualcomm reports its Meta revenue under its Internet of Things (IoT) division, which had $1.81 billion in sales during the quarter, up 7% from a year earlier.
All three of those segments topped estimates, according to StreetAccount.
Qualcomm's licensing business saw revenue slide 7% from a year ago to $1.41 billion, also beating analyst expectations.
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