A tall heap of smartphones slumps and shrinks as a small figure stands beside it at dusk

The small figure turns away from the heap of phones and looks across a valley to a towering mountain with a data center on top

Two large figures with their faces out of view walk toward a counter on which custom chips sit in open boxes, their coin purses still closed

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Afternoon Brief · November 4th 2026

Qualcomm's handset revenue drops 26%, leaving the data center plan to carry the story

Qualcomm's adjusted fiscal fourth-quarter sales fell 7% to $10.44 billion, above the $10.11 billion estimate, with handset revenue down 26% to $5.14 billion on weak demand and lost Apple business. It forecast $10.4 billion to $11.2 billion for the December quarter, above the $10.48 billion estimate at the midpoint, but its profit outlook disappointed. Reports of the after-hours drop range from more than 4% to 6.6%.

Investors are being asked to look past phones to a target set in June: more than $15 billion of annual data center revenue by fiscal 2029, from about $0.3 billion this year. Two unnamed hyperscalers were due to start paying for custom chips before the end of the calendar year, so the next two quarters give the first real test of that number. SourcesB C C

Sources

This story ran in the Afternoon Brief of November 4th 2026.

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