NVIDIA vs Qualcomm: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
NVIDIA reported $215.9B of revenue in FY2026 and $120.1B of net income. Qualcomm reported $44.3B of revenue in FY2025 and $5.5B of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
NVIDIA
NVIDIA's revenue rose from $27.0B in fiscal 2023 to $60.9B in FY2024, $130.5B in FY2025 and $215.9B in FY2026, which ended January 25, 2026. FY2026 net income was $120.1B. Growth sped up again in fiscal 2027: Q1 revenue was $81.6B and Q2 (ended July 26, 2026) was $96.2B, up 106% year over year, with a 75.0% gross margin and $59.7B GAAP net income. Guidance for Q3 FY2027 is $108.0B, plus or minus 2%, and assumes no Data Center compute revenue from China. NVIDIA returned about $26.0B to shareholders in Q2. In May 2026 it raised the quarterly dividend to $0.25 from $0.01, and on September 28, 2026 it added $150B to its buyback authorization.
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
NVIDIA
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $215.9B | $120.1B | 55.6% | +65.5% | Source |
| FY2025 | $130.5B | $72.9B | 55.8% | +114.2% | Source |
| FY2024 | $60.9B | $29.8B | 48.8% | +125.9% | Source |
| FY2023 | $27B | $4.4B | 16.2% | +0.2% | Source |
| FY2022 | $26.9B | $9.8B | 36.2% | +61.4% | Source |
| FY2021 | $16.7B | $4.3B | 26.0% | +52.7% | Source |
| FY2020 | $10.9B | $2.8B | 25.6% | -6.8% | Source |
| FY2019 | $11.7B | $4.1B | 35.3% | +20.6% | Source |
| FY2018 | $9.7B | $3B | 31.4% | +40.6% | Source |
| FY2017 | $6.9B | $1.7B | 24.1% | — | 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
NVIDIA
- Data CenterDominant
GPU accelerators, AI systems, networking, and software for cloud, enterprise, and supercomputing customers.
- GamingMaterial
GeForce GPUs and gaming-platform products for PC gamers, creators, and consumer AI PCs.
- Professional Visualization
Complementary
Workstation GPUs, visualization, simulation, and Omniverse-related products.
- AutomotiveGrowth
Automotive compute, software, and autonomous-driving platforms.
- Software And ServicesGrowth
Enterprise AI software, cloud services, libraries, and platform subscriptions layered on hardware.
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
NVIDIA
How it makes money
NVIDIA is a fabless chip and systems company: it designs GPUs, CPUs, networking and software, and outsources manufacturing mainly to TSMC. Data Center is the core business, at $193.7B of FY2026 revenue (about 90%) and $89.0B of the $96.2B earned in Q2 FY2027.
Growth strategy
NVIDIA wants to sell the whole AI factory, not just accelerators. It ships a new architecture roughly every year: Blackwell, then Blackwell Ultra, then Vera Rubin, which reached full production in mid-2026. Each rack combines GPUs, Vera CPUs, NVLink, Spectrum-6 switches and BlueField DPUs.
Competitive advantage
NVIDIA's lead comes from three things working together. CUDA has been in use since 2006 and much of the AI software stack is tuned for it. NVIDIA sells full systems that tie compute, NVLink and networking into one rack. Its scale also gets it priority access to TSMC wafers and high-bandwidth memory.
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 NVIDIA vs Qualcomm
Which company has higher revenue — NVIDIA Corporation or Qualcomm Inc.?
NVIDIA Corporation reported $215.9B (FY2026), while Qualcomm Inc. reported $44.3B (FY2025). By last reported revenue, NVIDIA Corporation is the larger business, with Qualcomm Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base. Note: these are from different fiscal years and are not a direct like-for-like comparison.
What is the market cap of NVIDIA Corporation vs Qualcomm Inc.?
NVIDIA Corporation's market capitalisation stands at $5.45T, while Qualcomm Inc.'s is $208.0B. NVIDIA Corporation carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to Qualcomm Inc..
Which is more financially efficient — NVIDIA Corporation or Qualcomm Inc.?
NVIDIA Corporation generates $5.14M / employee in revenue per employee, while Qualcomm Inc. generates $852k / employee. NVIDIA Corporation 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 NVIDIA Corporation and Qualcomm Inc. make money?
NVIDIA Corporation and Qualcomm Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. NVIDIA Corporation: NVIDIA is a fabless chip and systems company: it designs GPUs, CPUs, networking and software, and outsources manufacturing mainly to TSMC. Qualcomm Inc.: Qualcomm earns money in two ways.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — NVIDIA Corporation or Qualcomm Inc.?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, NVIDIA Corporation trades at 25.2x P/S and Qualcomm Inc. at 4.7x P/S. NVIDIA Corporation 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 NVIDIA Corporation bigger than Qualcomm Inc.?
By last reported revenue, NVIDIA Corporation ($215.9B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to Qualcomm Inc. ($44.3B (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 NVIDIA vs Qualcomm overview