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Designs smartphone processors and modems, and licenses its cellular patents to virtually every phone maker.
Designs smartphone processors and modems, and licenses its cellular patents to virtually every phone maker.
Earns from two different businesses: selling chips and licensing patents, where phone makers pay a royalty on each handset they sell whichever chip it uses. Phones remain the largest line, with cars and other devices the diversification. Apple has long been a major modem customer and has begun replacing it with its own.
Moat: narrow (IP / patents, customer qualification). Essential cellular-standard patents force licensing fees from nearly all phone makers regardless of chip supplier.
Headquarters: San Diego, California, US · Founded: 1985
Size Qualcomm (QCOM) is a United States Information Technology company (Semiconductors) with a market value of $177B, the 69th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $165.41 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 24.2%, against -14.1% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 7th lowest of 19 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 1.9% over the last twelve months (peer median +23.7%); the operating margin is 23.5% (peer median 25.6%).
Valuation It trades at 17.0× forward earnings against a peer median of 24.7× (6th cheapest of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 16% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +5%, so the hurdle is +11 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 8.9 points above its cost of capital (12.8% WACC).
Credit Qualcomm has 15 bonds outstanding ($15.1B), rated A by the agencies and trading like A- at a weighted spread of 78 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 2.8% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 3 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2026 | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $44.1B | $43.1B | $44.3B | $39.0B | $35.8B |
| Revenue growth | — | -3% | +14% | +9% | — |
| Gross profit | $23.9B | $22.9B | $24.5B | $21.9B | $20.0B |
| EBITDA | $11.9B | $10.6B | $14.0B | $12.0B | $10.5B |
| Net income | $9.26B | $13.6B | $5.54B | $10.1B | $7.23B |
| Free cash flow | $10.4B | $8.65B | $12.8B | $11.2B | $9.85B |
| Capital expenditure | $1.99B | $2.49B | $1.19B | $1.04B | $1.45B |
| Total debt | $15.3B | $15.1B | $15.6B | $15.4B | $16.1B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm QCOM | $177B | -24% | +2% | 24% | 17.0× | 15.9% |
| Mediatek 2454.TW | $164B | +7% | +6% | 15% | 24.7× | 40.7% |
| Apple AAPL | $4.98T | +17% | +15% | 33% | 36.8× | 19.0% |
| SamsungElec 005930.KS | $886B | -14% | +88% | 46% | 4.0× | -7.2% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | QCOM | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -6.0% | -23.7% | 5th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -24.2% | -14.1% | 7th lowest of 19 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -36.1% | -49.5% | 9th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +1.9% | +23.7% | lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 23.5% | 25.6% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 17.0× | 24.7× | 6th cheapest of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 15.9% | 27.8% | 4th least demanding of 16 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +5.1% | +14.4% | 3rd lowest of 16 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +10.8 pp | +12.6 pp | 8th least demanding of 16 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +8.9 pp | +3.0 pp | 9th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 15.4× | 20.4× | 4th cheapest of 15 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.6× | 0.2× | 6th most indebted of 16 |
| Bond spread | 78 bp | 78 bp | 6th tightest of 12 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm QCOM | United States | $177B | -24% | +2% | 24% | 17.0× | 15.9% | +5.1% |
| Analog Devices ADI | United States | $176B | -13% | +34% | 36% | 22.4× | 27.8% | +14.5% |
| KLA KLAC | United States | $180B | -26% | +16% | 43% | 22.3× | 23.5% | +14.4% |
| Mediatek 2454.TW | Taiwan | $164B | +7% | +6% | 15% | 24.7× | 40.7% | +13.1% |
| Arm ARM | United States | $204B | -18% | +25% | 17% | 67.7× | n/a | n/a |
| Marvell Technology MRVL | United States | $124B | -17% | +31% | 17% | 25.0× | 54.4% | +22.5% |
| Texas Instruments TXN | United States | $253B | -4% | +20% | 41% | 24.6× | 23.3% | +4.1% |
| Intel INTC | United States | $299B | -55% | +12% | 11% | 39.9× | 46.1% | -7.5% |
| Kioxia 285A.T | Japan | $88.9B | +139% | +265% | 70% | 2.5× | -3.0% | +18.8% |
| Zhongji Innolight 3308.HK | Hong Kong | $80.7B | n/a | +177% | 41% | 16.7× | 27.6% | +39.3% |
| SMIC 0981.HK | Hong Kong | $76.7B | -41% | +20% | 9% | 32.9× | n/a | n/a |
| CXMT 688825.SS | China | $411B | n/a | +156% | 13% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Cambricon Technologies 688256.SS | China | $75.7B | -30% | +104% | 33% | 87.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Ase Technology 3711.TW | Taiwan | $70.4B | +2% | +25% | 11% | 17.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Infineon Technologies IFX.DE | Germany | $66.8B | -33% | +6% | 13% | 26.0× | 30.2% | +11.3% |
| NXP Semiconductors NXPI | United States | $62.6B | -15% | +15% | 30% | 14.1× | 16.3% | +7.3% |
| TE Connectivity TEL | United States | $59.5B | +1% | +15% | 22% | 15.1× | 8.2% | +5.9% |
| Monolithic Power Systems MPWR | United States | $58.1B | -26% | +40% | 30% | 28.3× | 39.6% | +27.0% |
| ASML ASML.AS | Netherlands | $550B | -6% | +23% | 39% | 31.1× | 28.9% | +18.5% |
| SK hynix 000660.KS | South Korea | $608B | -12% | +220% | 74% | 3.1× | -3.1% | +24.9% |
| SamsungElecMech 009150.KS | South Korea | $47.2B | +5% | +22% | 12% | 38.7× | 42.8% | +7.9% |
Qualcomm has 15 bonds outstanding with $15.1B face value. The agencies rate it A; its bonds trade like A-. Weighted yield 5.70%, a spread of 78 bp over government bonds.