Qualcomm stock drops 7% on weak earnings forecast as memory shortage weighs on smartphone sales
- ID
- 43135
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 05 Nov 2026, 7:38 AM
- Fetched
- 05 Nov 2026, 8:26 AM
- Provider
- CNBC Technology
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/04/qualcomm-qcom-earnings-report-q4-2026.html
- Source URL
- https://www.cnbc.com/id/19854910/device/rss/rss.html
Summary
- Score
- 4.5
- Created
- 05 Nov 2026, 8:27 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_founders
What happened
Qualcomm beat estimates for the quarter (EPS $2.17 adjusted vs $2.16 expected, revenue $10.32B vs $10.11B) but guided below consensus for the current quarter at $2.15–$2.35 EPS on $10.4B–$11.2B revenue, versus analyst expectations of $2.27 and $10.48B, and the stock slid in extended trading. Overall revenue fell 8% year over year, and handset chip sales dropped 26% to $5.14B even after Qualcomm raised prices in September, as rising memory costs push handset makers to raise device prices and hurt demand. CEO Cristiano Amon framed the data center business differently: "We don't have a demand issue; it's a supply issue."
Why it matters
Memory costs are now showing up as a measurable hit to handset volumes — a 26% year-over-year drop in Qualcomm's phone chip sales despite a September price increase. If your roadmap depends on cheap Android hardware (test device fleets, kiosks, field devices, on-device inference targets), plan for higher unit costs and tighter supply rather than assuming last year's device pricing holds; the same memory pressure is what Qualcomm is citing, not a lack of buyers.
Discussion angle
Qualcomm blames memory supply and cost for the handset slump while calling data center a supply constraint rather than a demand problem — which of those two constraints is more likely to hit your own hardware or device-dependent plans in the next two quarters, and what would you change now?