Qualcomm has emerged as a front-runner in the personal AI and wearable market, overturning earlier doubts about its position in the AI race. Its partnership with Meta on Ray-Ban smart glasses has driven explosive demand, prompting Qualcomm to raise production targets from an initial 10 million units to between 20 and 30 million units for the upcoming year. This surge underscores the company’s ability to leverage its Snapdragon platform for low-power AI inference at the edge, a capability that has attracted orders from multiple tier-one consumer electronics brands.

With the launch of its Dragonwing IQ10 Series system-on-chips, Qualcomm is staking a claim as a key enabler in the burgeoning robotics sector. The new chipset offers up to 20 TOPS (tera-operations per second) of AI performance and is optimized for humanoid and service robots. Notably, Qualcomm has signed a development agreement with Figure, the California-based robotics firm, to integrate Dragonwing IQ10 into its next-generation humanoid platform, potentially granting Qualcomm exposure to the fast-growing industrial automation market, which IDC projects will expand at a 25% CAGR over the next five years.

Despite strength in AI and robotics, Qualcomm’s core handset business is under pressure. Mizuho analysts recently downgraded the company’s rating, citing expected losses in modem share for premium smartphones, particularly those supplied to Apple, and softer overall handset demand in key Asian markets. The stock declined by nearly 5% on the downgrade, reflecting investor concern that growth in automotive and IoT—both delivering robust double-digit revenue gains—may not fully offset near-term weakness in the traditional mobile segment.

Qualcomm is scheduled to report Q4 results in early February, a release that analysts view as a critical juncture. Expectations center on clearer guidance for handset modem shipments in the second half of the year, updates on gross margin trends amid rising R&D investments in AI silicon, and progress on expanding automotive and IoT design wins. With consensus forecasting mid-single-digit revenue growth for the year ahead, any deviation—positive or negative—could prompt a significant re-rating of the shares.