Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is emerging as the dominant force in the rapidly expanding smart glasses market, powering designs for major players including Meta, Oakley, Ray-Ban, and Xiaomi.
Check out the stock price of QCOM over here.
What Happened: This strong position has led Ray Wang, Research Director for Semiconductors at Futurum Group, to declare Qualcomm the “biggest beneficiary” for AI/smart glasses, asserting that their technology is the “best one for now.”
This strategic focus on next-generation personal AI devices, coupled with robust third-quarter 2025 earnings, underscores Qualcomm’s successful diversification beyond traditional mobile chipsets.
While overall performance was strong, a key highlight from the earnings call transcript was the significant traction in the XR (Extended Reality) segment. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform is the preferred choice for smart glasses and mixed reality devices, boasting 19 designs from global partners.
The demand for Meta Platforms Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:META) AI smart glasses, in particular, has exceeded expectations, leading to an expanded portfolio with new Meta Oakley and Ray-Ban styles, all powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 platform. Xiaomi’s new AI glasses, also running on Snapdragon, have been well-received.
CEO Cristiano Amon emphasized the accelerated advancement of AI and generative AI, noting its role in redefining the mobile industry and fostering the emergence of new personal AI devices like smart watches, earbuds, and smart glasses.
These devices, he stated, are evolving independently of smartphones to provide unique personalized AI and agentic use cases, leveraging Snapdragon’s connectivity, power efficiency, and advanced sensing capabilities.
Why It Matters: Beyond smart glasses, Qualcomm’s diversification is evident in its strong Automotive and IoT segments, which saw year-over-year revenue increases of 21% and 24% respectively, in the third quarter. The company is targeting $22 billion in combined revenues from these sectors by 2029, reinforcing its long-term growth trajectory.
Furthermore, Qualcomm is making a significant push into the data center market, including the acquisition of AlphaWave IP and ongoing advanced discussions with a leading hyperscaler, with projected revenues in this new area commencing in fiscal 2028.
The chipmaker reported better-than-expected third-quarter revenue of $10.365 billion, up 10% year-over-year, beating the street consensus estimate of $10.333 billion. The earnings per share of $2.77 beat a consensus estimate of $2.71.
However, its stock fell as the phone-related sales rose 7% to $6.33 billion, lower than the analyst estimate of $6.48 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Price Action: QCOM shares slid 5.00% in after-hours on Wednesday. The stock was up 3.53% year-to-date and down 12.10% over the past year.
Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that QCOM maintains a weak momentum across the short, medium, and long term. However, the stock scores well on quality rankings. Additional performance details are available here.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, ended on a mixed note on Wednesday. The SPY was down 0.13% at $634.46, while the QQQ advanced 0.13% to $568.02, according to Benzinga Pro data.
On Thursday, the futures of the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 indices were trading higher.
Read Next:
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo by Michael Vi via Shutterstock
