Qualcomm Posts $10.44B Revenue as Auto Chips Jump 89%; Arm Sales Rise 27%

Two of the chip industry's licensing heavyweights reported within an hour of each other on Wednesday, and the two prints told the same story from opposite ends: phone chips are soft, everything attached to AI infrastructure and cars is not.

Qualcomm: handsets down, cars up#

Qualcomm closed its fiscal year with fourth-quarter revenue of $10.32 billion on a GAAP basis and $10.44 billion non-GAAP, down 8% from a year earlier. Non-GAAP earnings came in at $2.17 a share, roughly in line with consensus estimates near $2.16, while GAAP earnings were $1.17 a share.

Inside the chip division (QCT), the split was stark:

• Handsets: $5.14 billion, down 26% year over year
• Automotive: $1.99 billion, up 89% — the unit's first $2 billion quarter
• IoT: $1.89 billion, up 4%
• Total QCT: $9.02 billion

For the December quarter, Qualcomm guided to revenue of roughly $10.3 billion to $11.1 billion across its chip and licensing divisions, with non-GAAP earnings of $2.15 to $2.35 a share — a midpoint a shade below the roughly $2.32 consensus estimate tracked before the print. For the full fiscal year, revenue was $43.1 billion with non-GAAP earnings of $10.54 a share.

Arm: licensing carries the quarter#

Arm's second quarter of fiscal 2027 produced revenue of $1.443 billion, up 27% year over year and above the $1.38 billion midpoint the company had guided to. Non-GAAP earnings were $0.52 a share, up from $0.39 a year earlier.

The mix matters more than the headline:

• Licensing: $773 million, up 50% — companies are paying up front to design new Arm-based chips
• Royalties: $670 million, up 8% — with data-center royalties doubling year over year

Arm guided the December quarter to revenue of $1.54 billion, plus or minus $50 million.

What the two prints say together#

Licensing is the leading edge for both companies, and it is pointing at the same buyers: data centers and vehicles. Arm signs the design deals today that become royalty revenue when the chips ship; Qualcomm is already shipping, and its automotive line growing 89% while handsets fall 26% shows where the industry's growth has moved. The soft spot is the phone — still the largest single revenue line for Qualcomm, and still shrinking.

Figures are from the companies' own filings: Qualcomm's earnings release furnished with its Form 8-K and Arm's shareholder letter furnished with its Form 6-K, both filed with the SEC on November 4, 2026. Consensus figures are pre-print estimates as tracked by financial data providers. This is reporting, not financial advice.