AMD vs Qualcomm: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
AMD reported $34.6B of revenue in FY2025 and $4.3B of net income. Qualcomm reported $44.3B of revenue in FY2025 and $5.5B of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
AMD
AMD's decade is a turnaround with a paper trail. Revenue fell to $4.0B in 2015 and the company lost $660M; its market value ended that year near $2.3B. Zen-based Ryzen and EPYC parts, and Intel's process delays, shifted the mix toward servers and then AI accelerators. FY2025 revenue was $34.6B, up 34% from $25.8B, with net income of $4.3B, a 50% gross margin, $8.1B of research and development spending, and $4.1B of marketing, general and administrative expense. Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments rose to $10.6B from $5.1B a year earlier, against $3.3B of total debt principal. The result also absorbed about $440M of net inventory and related charges tied to US export controls on Instinct MI308 products.
Qualcomm
Qualcomm's revenue has swung with the smartphone cycle: $44.2B in FY2022, $35.8B in FY2023, $39.0B in FY2024 and a record $44.284B in FY2025. FY2025 operating income was $12.355B, but GAAP net income dropped to $5.541B because of a large non-cash income tax charge booked in the September 2025 quarter. FY2026 has been tougher on the top line. Q2 revenue was $10.599B, and Q3 revenue fell 4% year over year to $9.9B with GAAP EPS of $1.87 and non-GAAP EPS of $2.21, as higher memory costs squeezed handset demand. QTL revenue was $1.3B in Q3. Qualcomm returned $2.3B to shareholders that quarter and guided Q4 FY2026 revenue to $9.7B-$10.5B.
Revenue and profit by year
AMD
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $34.6B | $4.3B | 12.5% | +34.3% | Source |
| FY2024 | $25.8B | $1.6B | 6.4% | +13.7% | Source |
| FY2023 | $22.7B | $854M | 3.8% | -3.9% | Source |
| FY2022 | $23.6B | $1.3B | 5.6% | +43.6% | Source |
| FY2021 | $16.4B | $3.2B | 19.2% | +68.3% | Source |
| FY2020 | $9.8B | $2.5B | 25.5% | +45.0% | Source |
| FY2019 | $6.7B | $341M | 5.1% | +4.0% | Source |
| FY2018 | $6.5B | $337M | 5.2% | +23.3% | Source |
| FY2017 | $5.3B | -$33M | -0.6% | +21.6% | Source |
| FY2016 | $4.3B | -$498M | -11.5% | — | Source |
Qualcomm
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $44.3B | $5.5B | 12.5% | +13.7% | Source |
| FY2024 | $39B | $10.1B | 26.0% | +8.8% | Source |
| FY2023 | $35.8B | $7.2B | 20.2% | -19.0% | Source |
| FY2022 | $44.2B | $12.9B | 29.3% | +31.7% | Source |
| FY2021 | $33.6B | $9B | 26.9% | +42.6% | Source |
| FY2020 | $23.5B | $5.2B | 22.1% | -3.1% | Source |
| FY2019 | $24.3B | $4.4B | 18.1% | +7.4% | Source |
| FY2018 | $22.6B | -$5B | -22.0% | +1.6% | Source |
| FY2017 | $22.3B | $2.4B | 11.0% | -5.5% | Source |
| FY2016 | $23.6B | $5.7B | 24.2% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
AMD
- Data Center~48%
EPYC server CPUs, Instinct AI accelerators, Pensando DPUs, AI network interface cards, FPGAs, and adaptive SoCs sold to cloud providers, enterprises, and HPC customers. Net revenue was $16.6B in FY2025, up 32%.
- Client and Gaming~42%
Ryzen desktop and notebook processors, chipsets, Radeon discrete GPUs, and semi-custom SoCs for PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Net revenue was $14.6B in FY2025, up 51%, with Client at $10.6B and Gaming at $3.9B.
- Embedded~10%
Xilinx-derived FPGAs, adaptive SoCs, system-on-modules, and embedded CPUs sold into telecommunications, aerospace, defense, automotive, and industrial markets. Net revenue was $3.5B in FY2025, down 3%.
Qualcomm
- QCT Handsets~63%
Snapdragon processors, modems and RF chips for smartphones: $27.793B in FY2025. Handset revenue fell 20% to $5.1B in Q3 FY2026 as memory costs hurt phone demand.
- QCT IoT~15%
Chips for industrial devices, networking, XR headsets, PCs and consumer electronics: $6.617B in FY2025 and $1.8B in Q3 FY2026.
- QCT Automotive~9%
Snapdragon Digital Chassis cockpit, ADAS and connectivity platforms: $3.957B in FY2025, up from $2.9B in FY2024, and $1.6B in Q3 FY2026 (up 61%).
- QTL Licensing and other~13%
Royalties on Qualcomm's cellular patents plus smaller strategic initiatives. QTL revenue was $1.3B in Q3 FY2026 at a 69% EBT margin, making it a disproportionate profit contributor.
Business model and strategy
AMD
How it makes money
Advanced Micro Devices runs a fabless semiconductor model. It designs CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators, FPGAs, and adaptive SoCs, and contracts the wafer manufacturing to outside foundries, primarily TSMC. That structure keeps leading-edge fabrication off AMD's balance sheet and makes engineering its largest investment: research and development cost $8.1B in FY2025, about 23% of revenue.
Growth strategy
AMD's growth plan centers on data center AI, funded by $8.1B of research and development in FY2025. It has bought capability rather than waiting to build it: Xilinx in February 2022 for FPGAs and adaptive computing, a deal announced in October 2020 at about $35B in stock and worth roughly $49B at close; Pensando in May 2022 for DPUs at about $1.9B; Silo AI in August 2024 for AI software engineering at about $665M;
Competitive advantage
AMD's advantage is design and packaging execution without fab ownership. Because it buys capacity from TSMC instead of running leading-edge fabs, it can move to a newer process node as soon as the foundry has one in volume. Its chiplet approach assembles a processor from smaller dies linked by Infinity Fabric, which improves usable yield and makes high core-count parts cheaper to build than a single large die.
Qualcomm
How it makes money
Qualcomm earns money in two ways. QCT (Qualcomm CDMA Technologies) designs Snapdragon systems-on-chip, modems, RF front-end and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chips and sells them to handset, automotive, PC and IoT customers; manufacturing is outsourced to foundries such as TSMC and Samsung. QCT produced $38.367B of FY2025 revenue, including $27.793B from handsets, $6.617B from IoT and $3.957B from automotive.
Growth strategy
Qualcomm's growth plan is to reuse Snapdragon's low-power compute, connectivity and AI engines outside phones. Automotive is the clearest win so far, with the Snapdragon Digital Chassis growing from $2.9B in FY2024 to $3.957B in FY2025 and $1.6B in Q3 FY2026 alone. Snapdragon X chips target Windows Copilot+ laptops. Industrial IoT and robotics carry a design-win pipeline above $7B.
Competitive advantage
Qualcomm's edge comes from pairing leading cellular modem and RF engineering with one of the largest portfolios of standard-essential wireless patents. That combination lets it sell integrated Snapdragon platforms (CPU, GPU, NPU, modem and RF) while still collecting royalties on phones that use rival chips. Its custom Oryon CPU cores, from the 2021 Nuvia deal, now run in both flagship phone and Windows PC chips.
Questions about AMD vs Qualcomm
Which company has higher revenue — Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or Qualcomm Inc.?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. reported $34.6B (FY2025), while Qualcomm Inc. reported $44.3B (FY2025). By last reported revenue, Qualcomm Inc. is the larger business, with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base.
What is the market cap of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. vs Qualcomm Inc.?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.'s market capitalisation stands at $999.5B, while Qualcomm Inc.'s is $208.0B. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to Qualcomm Inc..
Which is more financially efficient — Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or Qualcomm Inc.?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. generates $1.12M / employee in revenue per employee, while Qualcomm Inc. generates $852k / employee. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. make money?
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.: Advanced Micro Devices runs a fabless semiconductor model. Qualcomm Inc.: Qualcomm earns money in two ways.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or Qualcomm Inc.?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. trades at 28.9x P/S and Qualcomm Inc. at 4.7x P/S. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. commands a higher revenue multiple, typically indicating that investors expect faster growth or higher future margins compared to Qualcomm Inc.. A higher multiple is not inherently better — it may also signal that the stock is priced for perfection.
Is Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. bigger than Qualcomm Inc.?
By last reported revenue, Qualcomm Inc. ($44.3B (FY2025)) is the larger company compared to Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ($34.6B (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the AMD vs Qualcomm overview