Qualcomm cuts jobs worldwide, launches Anduril laptop as handset chips fall 20% before its November 4 report
A layoff memo with no headcount and an American-built laptop landed eight days apart. On November 4, Qualcomm has to show the pivot outgrowing the phone decline.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
Qualcomm+1.77% — Qualcomm, up 1.77 percent today chief executive Cristiano Amon told the chipmaker's roughly 52,000 employees last week that job cuts begin worldwide in November, a "performance-focused reduction" for areas where the company "has consistently fallen short of expectations," according to an internal memo obtained by reporters 12. No headcount was given. Qualcomm had already booked $70 million of restructuring charges in its June quarter. 12
The phone business pays for the exit
Handset chips earned $5.09 billion in the June quarter, down 20% year over year and still more than half of Qualcomm's $9.9 billion total, which has now shrunk for two straight quarters 13. Qualcomm expects its slice of the next iPhone to land materially below the 20% it once assumed 13. Memory prices have dragged smartphone shipments back to 2012 levels, and the company has moved to raise its own chip prices 2.
R&D now outruns operating profit
The June-quarter income statement explains the timing. Research spending climbed 17% to $2.6 billion while operating income fell 41% to $1.6 billion, the first time since 2023 that R&D outspent operating profit 5. Amon is cutting the company Apple+0.89% — Apple, up 0.89 percent today is leaving to fund the one he says is coming: $40 billion of non-handset revenue by fiscal 2029, double today's $22 billion, on growth management says rises from 24% this year to more than 60% in fiscal 2027 14.
R&D outspent operating income in the June quarter for the first time since 2023
- R&D spending
- Operating income
Data
| R&D spending | Operating income | |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 '23 | $2.14B | $1.41B |
| Q4 '23 | $2.1B | $2.93B |
| Q1 '24 | $2.24B | $2.34B |
| Q2 '24 | $2.26B | $2.22B |
| Q3 '24 | $2.3B | $2.58B |
| Q4 '24 | $2.23B | $3.56B |
| Q1 '25 | $2.22B | $3.12B |
| Q2 '25 | $2.23B | $2.76B |
| Q3 '25 | $2.37B | $2.92B |
| Q4 '25 | $2.45B | $3.37B |
| Q1 '26 | $2.46B | $2.31B |
| Q2 '26 | $2.61B | $1.63B |
Cars, servers and an Ohio laptop
Automotive revenue jumped 61% to $1.59 billion, about a third of handset scale, and two hyperscaler custom-chip designs start producing revenue in the December quarter, the first test of a data-center line management sizes at $5 billion next year 14. Qualcomm is also reported in talks for a Tenstorrent stake worth up to $10 billion 14.
Cars grew 61% while phones shrank 20%, from a base three times smaller
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Handset chips | -20% |
| IoT devices | 9% |
| Automotive | 61% |
On October 27 came the showpiece. Anduril$123.86B — Anduril, private, latest valuation $123.86B and Qualcomm launched BlueChip, a hardened laptop for soldiers, agencies and first responders, running a Snapdragon X built at TSMC's+3.13% — TSMC, up 3.13 percent today Arizona fab with circuit boards assembled at Anduril's Arsenal-1 plant in Ohio; preorders open in 2027 678. Anduril claims about 90% of the prototype's component cost is US or allied 678. Founder Palmer Luckey called the final share "TBD," priced it roughly 20% above high-end PCs, and sizes the rugged-computer market at about $5 billion 678.
November 4 settles it
The bull case calls the cuts, in one analyst's words, "sensible housekeeping": the $180 shares trade at 19.4 times forward earnings against a $196 average target, and Qualcomm returned $2.3 billion to holders last quarter, $1.4 billion of it buybacks 1. The estimates argue otherwise: 27 downward revisions to fiscal 2027 in the past 30 days, against guidance of $2.05 to $2.25 per share versus the $2.36 consensus, on $9.7 billion to $10.5 billion of revenue versus $11.3 billion a year earlier 14.
A stock up about 1.5% this year, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbed nearly 60%, is waiting on one comparison 1. November 4 settles it: a headcount for the cuts, and December-quarter guidance in which non-handset growth either outruns the handset decline or does not 1.
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