Qualcomm Shares Fall 6% as Apple Chip Exit Accelerates and Month-Long Rally Unwinds

Qualcomm shares dropped 6% to $178.15 on Friday, September 18, reversing a significant portion of a rally that had built over the prior month. The selloff was driven by renewed concern that Apple is reducing its reliance on Qualcomm chips faster than previously guided, with management acknowledging that Qualcomm's share of the 2026 iPhone launch will come in materially below its earlier estimate of 20%. The company cited its own supply constraints as a factor that accelerated the step-down, compounding an already-expected transition in its role across Apple's product portfolio.

The pressure on Qualcomm extends beyond the Apple relationship. Handset chips accounted for roughly $5.1 billion of QCT's $8.5 billion in revenue in fiscal Q3 2026, making the smartphone segment the company's single largest earnings driver. Qualcomm has said it expects the decline in Apple-related revenue to accelerate beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. Chipmakers with overlapping exposure to the mobile market, including Skyworks and Qorvo, also slipped on Friday.

On a more positive note for the company's longer-term diversification story, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon is set to attend a Trump-Xi dinner on September 24 alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, with artificial intelligence expected to be a central focus of the summit. Qualcomm has been pursuing its licensing arm and AI-adjacent chip opportunities as it works to offset the loss of Apple revenue, with the QTL licensing division adding $1.3 billion in fiscal Q3 2026.