Why Is the Market Overlooking Qualcomm’s Entry into the Defense Business?
Qualcomm is 30% below its peak because it’s losing Apple. The military laptop it unveiled with Anduril was almost ignored by the market. Yet it shows exactly which customer is leaving and which is arriving—and what that will do to the share price.
Key points
Qualcomm is 30% below its June high, even though it doubled its 2029 targets in June
The CFO admitted that revenue from Apple will fall by about half between two quarters
Anduril’s military laptop was developed without government subsidies or a single signed contract
The semiconductor sector trades at a P/E of 42.9, Qualcomm at 21.1—and the market thinks that’s fair
Results on November 4 will reveal five numbers that determine whether the hole left by Apple is closing
A laptop with a rifle-style strap—and a stock that didn’t budge
On Tuesday, October 27, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey stood beside Qualcomm $QCOM CEO Cristiano Amon and unveiled a prototype laptop with a strap like the one worn on a rifle. It’s called BlueChip, and it’s a rugged computer for the military, government agencies, first responders, and police. According to details published by TechCrunch, it will run on a Snapdragon X processor made at TSMC’s Arizona plant, about 90% of its components are expected to come from the US and allied countries, with the goal of reaching 100% over time, preorders will start in 2027, and the machine will cost about 20% more than top-of-the-line regular laptops.
Assembly will take place at the Arsenal-1 plant in Ohio, where Anduril is building combat drones, and both companies are funding the entire project themselves—with no government subsidies and no signed contract, as Luckey admitted to reporters. He declined to disclose production volumes.
The market’s reaction? Qualcomm’s share price fell 0.65% to 182.97 USD on October 28. The market filed the news under PR and moved on. In terms of revenue, that makes sense—BlueChip really won’t change the finances of a company that brings in 44 billion dollars a year.
The significance of the news lies elsewhere.