Fast Technology News, November 5 — With memory chip prices continuing to climb, mainstream smartphones around the world have generally seen terminal price increases, directly dampening replacement demand in the mobile consumer market. This chain reaction has likewise kept overall revenue at Qualcomm, the upstream chip giant, under sustained pressure.

Qualcomm officially released its full fiscal year 2026 financial report today. The fiscal year covers the period from September 29, 2025 to September 27, 2026. Full-year total operating revenue reached USD 43.12 billion, a slight decline of 3% year over year.

Full-year gross profit was USD 22.898 billion, down 6.71% year over year, corresponding to an overall gross margin of 53.1%, a decrease of 2.33 percentage points year over year. Net profit attributable to shareholders was USD 13.628 billion, up 146% year over year, with profit performance far exceeding prior general market expectations.

Looking separately at the data for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026, quarterly total operating revenue was USD 10.322 billion, down 8% year over year.

Gross profit for the quarter was USD 5.238 billion, down 16.02% year over year, with quarterly gross margin falling to 50.75%, a decline of 4.59 percentage points year over year. Net profit attributable to shareholders was only USD 1.251 billion, yet still up 140% year over year.

The most eye-catching business segment in the financial report came from the automotive track. Quarterly revenue of Qualcomm's QCT automotive business reached USD 1.99 billion, surging 89% year over year — just one step away from officially breaking the quarterly revenue milestone of USD 2 billion, far exceeding the industry's previous full-year expectations for its automotive business.

In sharp contrast to the rapid growth of the automotive business, global overall phone shipments continued to decline, directly forcing Qualcomm to cut shipments of consumer electronics chips such as mobile SoCs, dragging down revenue performance across the entire consumer electronics segment.

The financial report also disclosed important progress in the core patent licensing business. Qualcomm has completed the renewal of long-term QTL license agreements with Apple, Huawei, and Transsion, further ensuring the long-term stability of the patent business.

Last month, Huawei and Qualcomm officially announced a multi-year broad patent licensing agreement, covering cross-licensing of patent portfolios in multiple core technology areas including 5G, computing, artificial intelligence, and networking. At the same time, Qualcomm will acquire certain U.S. patents related to computing, AI, and networking technologies held by Huawei, and the transaction will be officially completed after all necessary regulatory approvals are obtained.

This long-term agreement also reflects that both parties recognize the core value of intellectual property and are jointly committed to conducting patent licensing-related cooperation in accordance with the principles of fairness, reasonableness, and non-discrimination.

According to the agreement details disclosed by both parties, Qualcomm will acquire certain U.S. patents related to computing, artificial intelligence, and networking technologies from Huawei. Huawei publicly stated that after the transaction is fully completed, the company's total revenue related to patent licensing is expected to exceed USD 6.9 billion.