Qualcomm to Cut Jobs Worldwide in "Performance-Focused Reduction" After Annual Reviews

Qualcomm plans to cut jobs across its global operations following the company's annual employee performance reviews, with notifications to affected staff set to begin in November, according to an internal memo from CEO Cristiano Amon reviewed by Reuters. The memo, sent Monday, describes the move as a "performance-focused reduction" tied to staff evaluations rather than a specific demand or revenue trigger.

What the Memo Says

According to Reuters' review of the memo, Amon told staff the cuts are meant to build "a stronger performance culture" and to address situations where the company "has consistently fallen short of expectations." Amon also wrote that business priorities, organizational needs, skills and expertise would factor into which roles are eliminated, stating: "As we have expanded the business, so have the competencies and skills we require... We must have the right people in the right roles so they can perform at their best and the company can continue to succeed."

Qualcomm did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment on the memo, the wire service reported.

Scale, Units and Severance Left Unspecified

The memo reviewed by Reuters did not state how many jobs would be affected, and Reuters said it could not immediately determine the scale of the cuts. No breakdown by business unit, such as handsets, automotive, IoT or data center, and no country-level detail has been disclosed in the memo as reported. Severance terms were likewise not detailed in the coverage. The Next Web, republishing the Reuters account, noted that it could not independently review the memo, which was seen by Reuters.

For context on the company's size, Qualcomm employed approximately 52,000 people worldwide as of September 2025, the end of its 2025 financial year, with most working full-time, according to its annual report as cited by Business Today and The Next Web. That headcount figure has not been linked directly to the new reduction in the available reporting, and no updated headcount has been disclosed.

The Next Web separately reported that Qualcomm booked $97 million in restructuring charges, mostly for severance, in the first nine months of its financial year. No restructuring charge or annualized cost-savings figure has been attached specifically to the November reductions in the reporting reviewed here.

Business Backdrop Cited in Coverage

Reuters described Qualcomm, one of the world's biggest smartphone chipmakers, as having been hit this year by a slump in consumer electronics sales as soaring memory prices weigh on demand in key markets. The Next Web similarly noted that rising memory chip prices have driven up the cost of phones and other devices, hurting demand.

In its late-July earnings report, Qualcomm forecast quarterly profit below analysts' estimates and said revenue from Apple products would decline faster than expected, according to Reuters. At the same time, the company signaled that growth in data-center and other non-handset businesses would more than offset the lost revenue by fiscal 2027. Qualcomm expects the majority of its chip sales to come from businesses other than smartphones that year as it expands into the AI data-center market, and it is targeting $5 billion in data-center revenue in fiscal 2027, per the Reuters and Next Web accounts.

It is worth noting, as an observation rather than a claim made in the memo itself, that the timing of a performance-based reduction arriving alongside a strategic pivot toward data-center and non-handset revenue could reflect broader organizational realignment pressures, though the reporting reviewed does not establish a direct causal link between the two.

Share Price and Market Context

Qualcomm shares have lagged badly in 2026, rising about 1.5% versus gains of more than 12% for the S&P 500 and nearly 60% for the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, Reuters reported. Reuters also said Qualcomm shares were up more than 1% on Tuesday after trading down about 0.5% earlier in the session. That modest intraday swing is, as an interpretation of the reported price action rather than a sourced conclusion, consistent with a limited market reaction to the layoff news itself; the reporting does not attribute the move to any single driver.

Bottom Line

An internal memo from CEO Cristiano Amon, reviewed by Reuters, indicates Qualcomm will cut jobs globally starting with November notifications, framing the move as tied to annual performance reviews rather than a stated demand shortfall. Qualcomm did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment, so the plan has not been publicly confirmed by the company. The memo leaves the number of roles affected, the business units involved, country-level detail and severance terms unspecified, and no restructuring charge or cost-savings target has been disclosed for this specific action in the reporting reviewed here. Investors weighing the news have more context available from the company's late-July guidance, which flagged softer near-term phone-chip demand against a longer-term bet on data-center growth, than from the memo itself.