--- title: "Qualcomm cuts jobs worldwide, launches Anduril laptop as handset chips fall 20% before its November 4 report" description: "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." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Chips" published: 2026-10-27T18:15:33.355Z modified: 2026-10-27T18:15:33.355Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/qualcomm-cuts-jobs-worldwide-launches-anduril-laptop-as-handset-chips-fall-20-before-its-november-4-report language: en keywords: "Qualcomm, Semiconductors, Layoffs, Earnings, Anduril" --- # 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. [Qualcomm](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/qualcomm) 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](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/qualcomm-pledges-global-layoffs-handset-130234727.html) [1][2]. No headcount was given. Qualcomm had already booked $70 million of restructuring charges in its June quarter. [1][2] ## 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 [1][3]. Qualcomm expects its slice of the next iPhone to land materially below the 20% it once assumed [1][3]. Memory prices have dragged smartphone shipments back to 2012 levels, and the company has [moved to raise its own chip prices](https://theinference.org/article/ai-s-price-wave-reaches-the-processor-intel-up-to-20-qualcomm-10-tsmc-next) [2]. ## R&D now outruns operating profit The [June-quarter income statement](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000804328) 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](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/apple) 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 [1][4]. *Chart: **R&D outspent operating income in the June quarter for the first time since 2023** Line chart of Qualcomm R&D spending and operating income across twelve quarters to June 2026, showing R&D rising to $2.6 billion as operating income falls to $1.6 billion* *Calendar quarters; Q2 '26 is Qualcomm's fiscal Q3 2026, ended June 28. $ billions per SEC filings. [5]* ## 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 [1][4]. Qualcomm is also [reported in talks for a Tenstorrent stake worth up to $10 billion](https://theinference.org/article/intel-and-qualcomm-are-reported-in-talks-for-tenstorrent-worth-up-to-10-billion) [1][4]. *Chart: **Cars grew 61% while phones shrank 20%, from a base three times smaller** Diverging bar chart of Qualcomm fiscal Q3 2026 segment revenue growth: handsets down 20%, IoT up 9%, automotive up 61%* *Year-over-year revenue growth by segment, fiscal Q3 2026 (quarter ended June). Company-reported figures via independent coverage. [1][4]* On October 27 came the showpiece. [Anduril](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/anduril) and Qualcomm [launched BlueChip, a hardened laptop](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/27/anduril-qualcomm-launch-bluechip-a-new-kind-of-us-made-laptop/) for soldiers, agencies and first responders, running a Snapdragon X built at [TSMC](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/tsmc)'s Arizona fab with circuit boards assembled at Anduril's Arsenal-1 plant in Ohio; preorders open in 2027 [6][7][8]. Anduril claims about 90% of the prototype's component cost is US or allied [6][7][8]. 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 [6][7][8]. ## 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 [1][4]. 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]. ## Takeaway Qualcomm's worldwide performance-based cuts begin in November with no headcount named; on November 4 its December-quarter guidance must show the non-handset pivot outgrowing the 20% handset decline. ## Sources 1. [Yahoo Finance (TIKR), Qualcomm Pledges Global Layoffs as Handset Revenue Falls 20%, 27 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/qualcomm-pledges-global-layoffs-handset-130234727.html) 2. [heise online, Qualcomm reportedly plans performance-based global layoffs in November, 23 October 2026](https://www.heise.de/en/news/Qualcomm-reportedly-plans-performance-based-global-layoffs-in-November-11497649.html) 3. [Yahoo Finance (Trefis), How Much Of Qualcomm Stock Rides On One Business?, 13 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/much-qualcomm-stock-rides-one-162455837.html) 4. [24/7 Wall St, Prediction: Qualcomm Could Be on the Verge of a Major Transformation, 5 October 2026](https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/10/05/prediction-qualcomm-could-be-on-the-verge-of-a-major-transformation/) 5. [Qualcomm quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 27 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000804328) 6. [TechCrunch, Anduril, Qualcomm launch BlueChip, a new kind of US-made laptop, 27 October 2026](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/27/anduril-qualcomm-launch-bluechip-a-new-kind-of-us-made-laptop/) 7. [The Verge, Palmer Luckey's Anduril is getting into laptops, 27 October 2026](https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/1019274/anduril-qualcomm-bluechip-laptops-american-made-military) 8. [Scioto Post, Anduril and Qualcomm say circuit boards for a new American-made laptop will be assembled at the Rickenbacker-area plant, 27 October 2026](https://www.sciotopost.com/anduril-and-qualcomm-say-circuit-boards-for-a-new-american-made-laptop-will-be-assembled-at-the-rickenbacker-area-plant-with-orders-opening-in-20/) --- Qualcomm cuts jobs worldwide, launches Anduril laptop as handset chips fall 20% before its November 4 report — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/qualcomm-cuts-jobs-worldwide-launches-anduril-laptop-as-handset-chips-fall-20-before-its-november-4-report