Qualcomm, a chip designer that provides components for major handset makers such as Apple and Samsung, experienced an almost 8% drop in pre-market trading on Thursday. The company warned that it would take longer for the smartphone market to recover from the pandemic-induced slump. Qualcomm’s quarterly revenue outlook was the second this week to disappoint Wall Street, following a downbeat forecast from Advanced Micro Devices that led to a more than 9% drop.
Though some results were promising, including a 20% increase in automotive revenue and sales in the internet-of-things unit remaining in line with expectations, Qualcomm’s shares were impacted by worries over competition from Taiwan’s MediaTek in high-end smartphone chips, as well as by uncertainty regarding China’s recovery from the pandemic.