Qualcomm Q4 2026: Record Auto Revenue Masks Handset Slump
As seen on the 24/7 Wall St. homepage on November 4, 2026.
Automotive revenue jumped 89% to a record $1.99 billion, offsetting a decline in handset chip revenue. Amon is calling fiscal 2027 the start of a non-handset inflection, reiterating a $5 billion data center target alongside a new Amazon AI infrastructure collaboration.
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Qualcomm's fiscal fourth quarter came in above Wall Street's expectations, with adjusted non-GAAP EPS of $2.17 and revenue of $10.32 billion. Even so, total revenue fell 8.4% from the year-ago quarter, reflecting how much the business is still being dragged by weakening handset demand.
QCT Handsets revenue, by far Qualcomm's largest product line, collapsed 26% year-over-year to $5.14 billion. That decline put real pressure on the QCT segment as a whole, where earnings before taxes margin narrowed to 24% from 29% a year earlier. Higher research and development and SG&A expenses added to the squeeze, as did $235 million in restructuring charges.
Automotive was the undeniable bright spot, with QCT Automotive revenue surging 89% year-over-year to a record $1.99 billion. IoT contributed a more modest 4% gain to $1.89 billion. Combined, those two segments grew 36% year-over-year, giving CEO Cristiano Amon the basis to say Qualcomm delivered results "at the high end of our guidance" on the segments the company is building its next chapter around.
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Amon is framing fiscal 2027 as the beginning of a structural shift. He stated that non-handset revenues are projected to grow more than 60% year-over-year, and management reiterated a $5 billion Data Center revenue target for the fiscal year. A newly announced multi-generational product collaboration with Amazon for AI infrastructure underlines how seriously Qualcomm is pursuing that data center opportunity.
For the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Qualcomm guided revenue of $10.4 billion to $11.2 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $2.15 to $2.35. QCT revenue guidance of $9.0 billion to $9.6 billion now explicitly includes Data Center for the first time, a reporting change that signals just how central that business has become to management's story. Investors will be watching whether the automotive momentum holds and whether the data center ramp translates into numbers that match the ambition of the $5 billion target.
Input-cost increases across wafers, packaging, and memory are pressuring gross margins, and management said the full benefit of its pricing actions to offset those costs is not expected to show up in QCT gross margins until the second half of fiscal 2027. That timeline leaves margin pressure as a headline risk for at least the next two quarters.