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QCOM
Qualcomm Incorporated · Technology - Semiconductors
$226.11
+15.59% this month
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ARM
Arm Holdings plc · Technology - Semiconductor IP
$439.46
+96.93% this month
Scoreboard verdict
Across AI score, momentum, valuation, upside, operating margin
QCOM
3
ARM
1
Comparison scoreboard
QCOM LEADS 3/5AI Score
QCOM ✓48.3
ARM 41.9
1Y Return
QCOM +46.39%
ARM ✓+200.90%
Fwd P/E
QCOM ✓19.85
ARM 142.50
Target Up.
QCOM ✓-14.75%
ARM -37.42%
Op. Margin
QCOM 22.06%
ARM N/A
Metrics last refreshed: 6/20/2026
Quick take
QCOM vs ARM Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
QCOM (Qualcomm) and ARM (Arm Holdings) are both central to mobile and edge AI computing but with opposite business models — Qualcomm designs and sells actual chips (Snapdragon processors) to phone and PC manufacturers while also licensing wireless patents, while Arm licenses the fundamental CPU architecture that Qualcomm (and virtually everyone else) uses to design chips, earning royalties on every Arm-based chip shipped globally. Qualcomm is Arm's customer; Arm's royalties include royalties from Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips.
QCOM vs ARM is chip designer with dominant edge AI position (Qualcomm's Snapdragon NPU leadership for on-device AI combined with high-margin wireless patent royalties and PC market expansion) versus architectural foundation licensor (Arm's near-monopoly on mobile CPU architecture creating a perpetual royalty stream from the hundreds of billions of Arm-based chips shipped across mobile, automotive, servers, and IoT) — chip designer versus architecture licensor.
Live analysis · updated 6/20/2026
QCOM holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. ARM has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+200.90% vs +46.39%), though QCOM trades at the lower forward P/E (19.85x vs 142.50x). Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for QCOM (-14.75%) than for ARM (-37.42%).
Normalized 1Y performance
QCOM
ARM
Recent returns
QCOM
ARM
Analyst price targets & sentiment
QCOM · 29 analysts
STRONG BUYHOLDSTRONG SELL
Buy (2.3/5.0)
Price target range
analyst low$140.00
analyst high$245.00
analyst mean$180.48
current price$226.11
-14.8% upside to analyst mean
ARM · 38 analysts
STRONG BUYHOLDSTRONG SELL
Buy (1.9/5.0)
Price target range
analyst low$125.00
analyst high$500.00
analyst mean$275.00
current price$439.46
-37.4% upside to analyst mean
Who should consider this stock?
QCOM may suit investors who:
- →Want edge AI inference exposure through the dominant mobile AI processor — Qualcomm's Snapdragon NPU brings on-device AI features to premium Android smartphones, making AI capabilities a differentiator in the handset upgrade cycle
- →Value Qualcomm's diversification from handsets into PCs (Snapdragon X), automotive (Snapdragon Ride), and IoT as providing multiple new market opportunities beyond the maturing smartphone upgrade cycle
- →See Qualcomm's high-margin QTL patent royalty revenue as a durable income stream that persists even when chip sales face competitive pressure
ARM may suit investors who:
- →Want royalty-model exposure to the entire semiconductor industry — Arm earns royalties on chips sold by Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, Amazon, Google, and NVIDIA, providing diversified semiconductor revenue without concentrating on any single chip designer or end market
- →Value Arm's expansion beyond mobile into data center (Neoverse server CPUs) as adding a large new royalty stream as cloud providers shift workloads from x86 to Arm-based custom CPUs for cost and power efficiency
- →Prefer Arm's IP licensing business model (high-margin, capital-light royalty income that scales without proportional cost increases) over the capital-intensive chip manufacturing and design model
Performance & AI score
| Metric | QCOM | ARM |
|---|---|---|
| AI score | 48.3 | 41.9 |
| AI rank | #562 | #907 |
| Latest close | $226.11 | $439.46 |
| 1M return | +15.59% | +96.93% |
| 6M return | +31.20% | +283.54% |
| 1Y return | +46.39% | +200.90% |
$10,000 invested — hypothetical growth (dividends reinvested)
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | QCOM | ARM |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $14.72K (+47.2%) started 2025-06-18 | $30.09K (+200.9%) started 2025-06-18 |
| 5Y ago | $19.91K (+99.1%) started 2021-06-21 | $69.11K (+591.1%) started 2023-09-14 |
| 10Y ago | $70.75K (+607.5%) started 2016-06-20 | $69.11K (+591.1%) started 2023-09-14 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
Valuation & upside potential
| Metric | QCOM | ARM |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $223.15B | $469.38B |
| Trailing P/E | 22.79 | 529.47 |
| Forward P/E | 19.85 | 142.50 |
| Price/Sales | 3.88 | 95.40 |
| EV/Revenue | 5.14 | 85.41 |
| Analyst target | $180.48 | $275.00 |
| Target upside | -14.75% | -37.42% |
Growth, profitability & risk
| Metric | QCOM | ARM |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth | -3.50% | 20.10% |
| Earnings growth | 173.00% | 47.90% |
| EPS growth | +173.00% | +47.90% |
| FCF margin | +21.56% | +15.25% |
| Operating margin | 22.06% | N/A |
| Profit margin | 22.31% | 18.37% |
| ROIC proxy | 36.08% | 11.95% |
| Return on equity | 36.08% | 11.95% |
| Dividend yield | 1.74% | 0.00% |
| Beta | 1.60 | 3.79 |
| Debt/equity | 55.98 | 5.93 |
| Current ratio | 2.37 | 6.00 |
| Quick ratio | 1.45 | 5.83 |
Drawdown & downside risk
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
1Y risk snapshot
QCOM max drawdown33.89%
ARM max drawdown41.47%
QCOM max wkly drop23.52%
ARM max wkly drop25.35%
5Y risk snapshot
QCOM max drawdown44.50%
ARM max drawdown53.97%
QCOM max wkly drop23.52%
ARM max wkly drop30.98%
10Y risk snapshot
QCOM max drawdown44.50%
ARM max drawdown53.97%
QCOM max wkly drop23.52%
ARM max wkly drop30.98%
Performance metrics by period
| Period | Metric | QCOM | ARM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growth | +47.18% | +200.90% |
| CAGR | +47.26% | +201.12% | |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.94 | 1.87 | |
| Max drawdown | 33.89% | 41.47% | |
| Max daily drop | 11.46% | 13.44% | |
| Max wkly drop | 23.52% | 25.35% | |
| 5Y | Growth | +83.05% | +591.08% |
| CAGR | +12.87% | +101.47% | |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.39 | 1.23 | |
| Max drawdown | 44.50% | 53.97% | |
| Max daily drop | 11.46% | 19.46% | |
| Max wkly drop | 23.52% | 30.98% | |
| 10Y | Growth | +436.64% | +591.08% |
| CAGR | +18.31% | +101.47% | |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.51 | 1.23 | |
| Max drawdown | 44.50% | 53.97% | |
| Max daily drop | 14.95% | 19.46% | |
| Max wkly drop | 23.52% | 30.98% |
Business comparison
| Category | QCOM | ARM |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Qualcomm Incorporated | Arm Holdings plc |
| Sector | Technology | Technology - Semiconductor IP |
| Industry | Semiconductors | N/A |
| Core business | Qualcomm designs and licenses semiconductor chips and wireless technology — its Snapdragon mobile processors power most premium Android smartphones (Samsung Galaxy, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Honor) and are expanding into PCs (Snapdragon X Elite), automotive (Snapdragon Ride), and IoT. Qualcomm also licenses its wireless patents (CDMA, 5G) through its QTL division, which generates high-margin royalty income. Qualcomm uses Arm's CPU architecture as the foundation for Snapdragon's CPU cores. | Arm Holdings is the world's dominant CPU architecture licensor — designing the Arm instruction set architecture (ISA) and reference CPU core implementations (Cortex-A, Cortex-M, Neoverse) that chip companies license to design custom processors. Arm licenses its IP to essentially every major chip company: Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, NVIDIA (Grace CPU), Amazon (Graviton), Google (Axion), and many others. Arm earns royalties on every chip shipped based on its architecture. |
| Investor focus | Investors track Qualcomm's handset revenue (largest segment), handset market share versus MediaTek, QTL patent royalty revenue, Snapdragon PC traction (competing with Intel in Windows), automotive revenue ramp, and the long-term diversification of revenue beyond handsets as smartphone market growth matures. | Investors track Arm's royalty revenue (current chips shipping) and license revenue (new technology licenses for future chips), royalty per chip (AUV — average unit value) improvement as Arm earns more on advanced chips, total addressable market expansion beyond mobile into data center and automotive, and NVIDIA's strategic ownership stake (NVIDIA owns ~1% of Arm post-IPO). |
QCOM strengths
- →Snapdragon AI processing leadership for smartphones — Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon chips include dedicated Neural Processing Units (NPUs) enabling on-device AI features like real-time image processing, voice recognition, and generative AI on mobile devices
- →Patent licensing revenue diversification — Qualcomm's QTL division licenses fundamental 3G, 4G, and 5G wireless patents to every phone manufacturer globally, generating high-margin royalties regardless of which Qualcomm chip the phone uses
- →PC market disruption with Snapdragon X — Qualcomm's Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite processors are winning significant design wins in Windows laptops (Microsoft Surface Pro, Dell, HP, Lenovo), competing with Intel and AMD in a new market
ARM strengths
- →Near-universal mobile chip architecture — virtually every smartphone CPU in the world is based on Arm architecture; this monopoly position creates royalty revenue from billions of devices shipped annually
- →Data center expansion with Neoverse — Arm's Neoverse server CPU architecture is gaining significant data center share; Amazon Graviton, Google Axion, Microsoft Cobalt, NVIDIA Grace, and Ampere Computing all use Arm Neoverse CPUs
- →Royalty model scales with silicon progress — as chips get more complex and powerful (adding more Arm CPU cores, using more advanced processes), Arm's royalty per chip can increase without proportionally increasing Arm's costs
Risks to watch — QCOM
- →Apple chip independence — Apple designs its own Arm-based chips (M-series for Mac, A-series for iPhone) and is not a Qualcomm Snapdragon customer; as Apple iPhone remains a large global market share, Qualcomm is excluded from that revenue
- →MediaTek competition in Android handsets — MediaTek's Dimensity chips have captured significant Android smartphone market share (including high-end), creating pricing pressure on Qualcomm's handset chip ASPs
- →Patent litigation and licensing disputes — Qualcomm's high-margin QTL patent revenue has faced periodic legal challenges from handset manufacturers disputing royalty rates
Risks to watch — ARM
- →RISC-V as an open-source architecture alternative — RISC-V is an open-source CPU instruction set that chip companies can use without paying Arm royalties; while RISC-V adoption has been slow in high-performance computing, it creates long-term structural licensing risk
- →Customer concentration in a few large chipmakers — Arm's royalty revenue is concentrated in Apple (very large Arm licensee), Qualcomm, Samsung, and MediaTek; any of these shifting architecture strategy would significantly impact Arm's royalties
- →Softbank overhang — SoftBank retains majority ownership of Arm post-IPO; Softbank's need for liquidity or strategic decisions about its Arm stake create potential supply and volatility risk for Arm's publicly traded shares
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