Qualcomm handset chip sales fall by a quarter as the company bets on cars and data centres

Qualcomm's revenue from phone chips fell 26 percent to about five billion dollars in the quarter to September. The company blamed the end of its Apple modem business and pressure from memory prices on phone makers. Total quarterly revenue was about ten billion dollars, down eight percent from a year earlier. Its shares fell about nine percent on Thursday, in a day when all chip stocks were sold.

Other parts of the business grew. Car chips reached a record of about two billion dollars in a quarter, up almost 90 percent. Qualcomm also announced an AI data-centre partnership with Amazon and says its data-centre business is aiming for five billion dollars a year. For the current quarter it guides to revenue of between 10.4 and 11.2 billion dollars. It expects phones to be less than half of its sales in the new fiscal year. The company renewed long-term licence deals with Apple, Huawei and Transsion.