Qualcomm Layoffs Reach India: Up to 1,000 Jobs at Risk as Employee Shares Severance Terms

Chipmaker Qualcomm may cut about 1,000 jobs in India as part of a global restructuring that could affect around 3,600 employees, or roughly 7% of its workforce, Madhyamam reported on 11 November, citing a Financial Express report. The company has not officially announced the numbers.

Qualcomm employs about 52,000 people worldwide, around 20,000 of them in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR and Chennai. The current round is expected to hit senior engineers and recent hires, and another round could follow in January 2027, according to the report.

What the severance looks like

An employee who said they were laid off on 9 November described the package on Reddit. According to that account, it included three months’ salary, one additional month’s salary for every year of service, and one more month’s pay for signing the exit documents within two to three days. Qualcomm has not publicly confirmed these terms.

Why the cuts

In a memo to staff last month, CEO Cristiano Amon described the exercise as a “performance-focused reduction” linked to the annual reviews, with notifications beginning in November. However, a manager reportedly told one affected employee that the decision rested on business requirements rather than individual performance.

The company is grappling with shrinking revenue from smartphone chips, a faster-than-expected fall in Apple-related sales and softer profit forecasts, even as it pushes into data centres, artificial intelligence and connected devices.

Featured image: Qualcomm technologies building in Mindspace, Hyderabad by iMahesh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources

• Madhyamam: Qualcomm may cut 1,000 jobs in India as global layoffs hit 3,600 employees