On November 4, 2026, Beijing time, Qualcomm announced the results for its fourth fiscal quarter ending September 27: QCT mobile revenue was $5.137 billion, down 26% year-over-year; automotive revenue was $1.99 billion, up 89% year-over-year; IoT revenue was $1.888 billion, up 4% year-over-year. These figures represent the company's revenue categorized by product application and do not reflect the corresponding terminal product sales. The company also reaffirmed its goal of $5 billion in data center revenue and over 60% growth in non-mobile revenue for the fiscal year 2027. However, these are forward-looking statements from management and do not represent achieved performance.
Regulatory Filings and Accounting Standards
Qualcomm submitted Form 8-K to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on the same day, attaching the results press release. For the fourth fiscal quarter, revenue calculated under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) was $10.322 billion, down 8% year-over-year; non-GAAP revenue was $10.442 billion, down 7% year-over-year. The company provides explanations and adjustment items for both standards at the end of the attachment, reminding that non-GAAP indicators can only serve as a supplement to GAAP results. The two standards include different adjustments and cannot be combined or used to replace GAAP results in regulatory filings.
By business division, QCT revenue for the fourth fiscal quarter was $9.015 billion, down 8% year-over-year, with a pre-tax profit of $2.142 billion, and the profit margin decreased from 29% to 24% compared to the same period last year; QTL revenue was $1.304 billion, down 7% year-over-year, with a pre-tax profit of $918 million, and the profit margin decreased from 72% to 70%. These figures come from the attachment submitted with the 8-K and reflect the quarter ending September 27, not real-time sales after the November disclosure, nor can they be used to infer order changes after the disclosure date.
Automotive Growth Fails to Offset Mobile Decline
There is a clear differentiation within the QCT internal structure. Mobile revenue dropped from $6.961 billion in the same period last year to $5.137 billion, a decrease of $1.824 billion; automotive revenue rose from $1.053 billion to $1.990 billion, an increase of $0.937 billion; IoT revenue increased from $1.807 billion to $1.888 billion, an increase of $0.081 billion. The combined increase of the latter two items is $1.018 billion, still less than the decline in mobile revenue. Therefore, the growth in automotive and IoT has not yet offset the reduction in mobile business in terms of amount, and it cannot be concluded that Qualcomm has freed itself from its dependence on the mobile market.
For the fiscal year 2026, GAAP revenue was $43.120 billion, a decrease of 3% year-over-year; GAAP pre-tax profit was $9.414 billion, a decrease of 26% year-over-year; GAAP net profit was $13.628 billion, an increase of 146% year-over-year. The company noted in the attachment that the full-year GAAP results include a $5.7 billion income tax benefit from the release of valuation allowances established in fiscal year 2025, equivalent to $5.32 per share. Therefore, the increase in net profit cannot be directly attributed to improvements in core operations; the annual non-GAAP net profit listed in the same attachment was $11.311 billion, a decrease of 15% year-over-year.
Tax Revenue Amplifies Annual Net Profit
Management has identified automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), and data centers as directions to expand revenue beyond mobile phones, and reiterated the target of $5 billion in data center revenue by fiscal year 2027. Qualcomm also expects non-phone revenue to grow by more than 60% year-over-year in the same fiscal year. These forecasts are subject to risks such as customer demand, supply, competition, and the progress of transactions. The company will begin to include its data center business in the QCT guidance starting from the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, but did not disclose confirmed data center customer revenue, order composition, or the quarterly path to achieving the $5 billion target in the attached documents.
For the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, Qualcomm provided a revenue guidance of $10.4 billion to $11.2 billion, with QCT revenue expected to be between $9 billion and $9.6 billion, and QTL revenue between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion. The GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) guidance is $1.03 to $1.23, while the non-GAAP guidance is $2.15 to $2.35. The guidance includes the data center business within QCT but does not separately list the quarterly amount for this business. The company clearly states that these figures are current expectations, and actual results may be affected by acquisitions, legal matters, exchange rates, and other factors.
Data Center Goals Not Yet Achieved
Qualcomm also noted that input costs for wafer manufacturing, assembly, testing, advanced packaging, memory, and other materials have generally risen, and the company is reflecting these higher costs through product pricing. Management expects the full impact of these actions on QCT's gross margin to be realized in the second half of fiscal 2027. The attachment did not disclose the specific cost increases for each category, the extent of price adjustments for each product, or the acceptance by customers. The cost assessments, pricing actions, and the timeline for gross margin improvements are based on the company's statements, and this source does not independently verify that future profit margins will change as planned.
The Verge's authorized information flow published a related headline and brief summary on November 4, summarizing the decline in smartphone sales as approximately 20% and characterizing the company's actions as a shift towards data centers; this article did not use its body text or images. Specific financial figures were taken from Qualcomm's submission to the SEC, indicating a 26% year-over-year decline in QCT smartphone revenue. Media summaries and the company's segmented tables use different levels of precision, and this article does not combine the two into a new estimate. The existing materials do not provide a single regional cause for the decline in smartphones or disclose actual customer revenue for data centers, so the goal cannot be written as a completed transformation.