Qualcomm, the chip designer, has reported a decrease in revenue of 17% with $9.3 billion from Christmas through March 26. This marks its second quarter of fiscal 2023. Meanwhile, operating cash flow, operating profit and pre-tax profit all fell by 46%. Net income also dropped by 42% to $1.7 billion. The quarterly figures were published by the US company on Wednesday, leading to Qualcomm shares dropping more than 5.5% on Thursday.
Analysts had expected quarterly sales of $9.1 billion on average. The smartphones business has shown a sharper decline in global demand than Qualcomm previously predicted, and management has not ruled out the possibility of smartphone sales slipping further in the next quarter. Comparatively, Qualcomm supplies computing platforms for motor vehicles and laptops, although this sector only accounts for a small portion of the company’s revenue.
Qualcomm reports its financial results in two divisions: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT), which builds chips, and Qualcomm Technologies Licensing (QTL), which sells licenses. QCT reports a 17% lower revenue to $7.9 billion, with sales to the automotive industry up by one-fifth. In contrast, QLT had almost a fifth less turnover (-18% to 1.3 billion dollars). Overall, these figures indicate a contraction, with sales for the current quarter expected to fall below nine billion dollars.
