New York, Feb 6, 2026, 11:17 EST — Regular session
- Qualcomm shares rose in morning trade after a forecast-driven slide earlier this week.
- The chipmaker blamed a global memory shortage for softer near-term expectations in smartphones.
- Traders are watching for any sign the squeeze is easing, with early March industry meetings looming.
Qualcomm Incorporated shares rose about 1.5% to $138.30 on Friday morning, trying to stabilize after a sharp pullback tied to a cautious outlook from the chip designer.
The San Diego, California-based company forecast fiscal second-quarter revenue of $10.2 billion to $11 billion, below analysts’ average estimate of $11.12 billion, and adjusted earnings of $2.45 to $2.65 per share, versus estimates of $2.89, pointing to an acute shortage of memory chips used in phones. Shares fell about 9% in after-hours trading after the results. “I just wish we had more memory,” Chief Executive Cristiano Amon told Reuters, as he described customers — especially in China — trimming inventories to cope with tighter supply. Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research, said Qualcomm was “expecting to be impacted by the worldwide memory crunch” for several quarters, even as Amon said the shortage should not derail the rollout of new AI data-center chips, with Saudi wealth-fund-backed Humain signed up as a customer. 1
On a post-earnings call, Amon warned that “industry-wide memory shortage and price increases” were likely to shape the overall scale of the handset market through the fiscal year. Executives and analysts said the squeeze could drag supply pressures into 2027, with fallout also hitting Arm Holdings, which designs the architecture underpinning many smartphone chips. Counterpoint Research data cited in the same discussion showed global shipments of advanced smartphone chips are expected to decline 7% in 2026, and eToro analyst Zavier Wong said the pressure “largely reflect[s] broader industry trends rather than Qualcomm-specific issues.” 2
Qualcomm’s earnings release showed first-quarter revenue of $12.252 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $3.50, with handset revenue of $7.824 billion and automotive revenue of $1.101 billion. The company said it returned $3.6 billion to shareholders in the quarter, including $2.6 billion in share repurchases and $949 million of dividends, and said it had completed its acquisition of Alphawave Semi as it pushes deeper into data centers. It also flagged memory supply constraints and related pricing as a hit to demand from several handset customers in its second-quarter outlook. 3
Brokerage calls turned more cautious after the guidance. Bank of America downgraded Qualcomm to “Neutral” from “Buy” on Thursday and cut its price objective to $155 from $215, citing a weaker handset market and what it described as mounting share losses that could weigh on growth. 4
The move has landed in an ugly patch for chip stocks. A tech-led selloff earlier this week punished Qualcomm and peer AMD after both issued outlooks that fell short of investor expectations, the Financial Times reported. 5
For traders, the near-term question is less about a single quarter and more about whether memory supply loosens fast enough for phone makers to rebuild production plans without choking off demand in the mid-range.
But the risks cut both ways. If memory prices keep rising and allocations stay tight, phone production can still stall even when chip demand is there — and analysts have also pointed to longer-running pressure as large customers like Apple and Samsung develop more chips in-house. CFO Akash Palkhiwala has said Qualcomm does not buy memory itself, but its customers do, and shortages can still squeeze device builds and orders. 6
Investors will also keep an eye on how quickly Qualcomm can shift the conversation from handsets to its newer bets — and whether those bets can show up in guidance, not just slides.
A nearer checkpoint is Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on March 2–5, where handset makers and component suppliers typically talk up build plans and pricing. Any hint the memory squeeze is easing could matter for Qualcomm’s next leg. 7
