Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO)

Qorvo designs radio frequency chips, the parts that let a device send and receive radio signals, along with analog mixed signal and power management chips, which turn real world signals into numbers and control the flow of electricity. It is organised in three segments: High Performance Analog, which it describes as a supplier of radio frequency, analog mixed signal and power management products; the Connectivity and Sensors Group, covering ultra wideband, Matter, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, Thread, Wi-Fi and cellular chips for connected devices; and the Advanced Cellular Group, which supplies cellular parts for smartphones, wearables, laptops and tablets. Six end markets are named: automotive, consumer, defense and aerospace, industrial and enterprise, infrastructure and mobile. In a phone its parts are the radio frequency modules, envelope tracking power management chips, antenna tuners, filters and switches that sit between the modem and the antenna. 26272829

How it operates

Qorvo designs radio frequency chips, the parts that let a device send and receive radio signals, along with analog mixed signal and power management chips, which turn real world signals into numbers and control the flow of electricity. It is organised in three segments: High Performance Analog, which it describes as a supplier of radio frequency, analog mixed signal and power management products; the Connectivity and Sensors Group, covering ultra wideband, Matter, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, Thread, Wi-Fi and cellular chips for connected devices; and the Advanced Cellular Group, which supplies cellular parts for smartphones, wearables, laptops and tablets. Six end markets are named: automotive, consumer, defense and aerospace, industrial and enterprise, infrastructure and mobile. In a phone its parts are the radio frequency modules, envelope tracking power management chips, antenna tuners, filters and switches that sit between the modem and the antenna. 26272829

The business runs through a few very large buyers. Apple is the largest end customer, supplied through several contract manufacturers whose purchases together came to 50% of revenue in fiscal 2026 and 47% the year before, and 46% the year before that; Samsung came to 10% in each of the last two years, down from 12%, and the filing says both buy mainly radio frequency products for mobile devices from the Advanced Cellular Group. The two largest end customers together accounted for about 59% of revenue in fiscal 2026, 57% in 2025 and 58% in 2024. Elsewhere it sells directly and through sales representative firms and distributors, and in defense and aerospace it supplies the US government, American defense primes and allied countries, including foundry and assembly services for other firms' own chip designs. Revenue moves with consumer demand for devices, the timing of customer device launches and large defense programs. 303132333435

Revenue is counted by where a customer keeps its headquarters, not by where the parts are shipped. On that basis customers headquartered in the United States brought in 2.3 billion dollars in the year to March 2026, 63.0% of revenue and 4.0% more than a year earlier; China 474.9 million, 12.9% of revenue and 23.5% less; Other Asia 431.9 million, 11.7%; Taiwan 357.7 million, 9.7%; Europe 98.3 million, 2.7%. The company puts sales to customers located outside the United States at about 37% of revenue in fiscal 2026, of which about 13% went to customers located in China. 363738

Qorvo still owns factories for the parts it treats as special. In fiscal 2026 its wafer fabs for BAW, GaAs, GaN and SAW, the compound semiconductor and acoustic filter processes behind its highest frequency parts, were in North Carolina, Oregon and Texas, and its own assembly plants were in Costa Rica, Germany and the United States. Silicon based processes, SOI, SiGe and bulk CMOS, come from foundries around the world, and the company says it ships millions of units a day. Raw materials include silicon, substrates, gallium nitride on silicon carbide wafers, gallium arsenide wafers, lithium niobate and lithium tantalate. The stated strategy is to make in house only the most differentiated elements and to leave the rest to outside partners. It closed the Costa Rica assembly and test plant in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 and sold the North Carolina fab in the fourth, buying from the new owner under a short term supply agreement until SAW filter production moves to Texas; the filing says these steps, with the earlier sale of assembly and test operations in China, have increased its reliance on third parties. 3940414243444546

The specifics

Qorvo is itself a merger: RF Micro Devices and TriQuint Semiconductor combined on January 1, 2015. Since fiscal 2025 it has been cutting back rather than adding. It set out to reduce operating expenses and streamline its manufacturing footprint, cut the workforce tied to its mass market Android business, sold its silicon carbide power device business, cancelled multiyear projects to replace its core business systems and looked for a buyer for its MEMS based sensing business, which it sold in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 for a gain of 19.2 million dollars. Goodwill and intangible assets were written down again in fiscal 2026 after forecasts were revised for a reporting unit inside the Connectivity and Sensors Group. 3474849

The company has agreed to be bought. On October 27, 2025 it signed a merger agreement with Skyworks Solutions, one of the rivals it names in two of its three segments, under which Qorvo would survive as a wholly owned subsidiary of Skyworks; its stockholders would take Skyworks shares and cash and would hold about 37% of the combined company against 63% for Skyworks holders, and Qorvo stock would be delisted from Nasdaq and deregistered. Both sets of stockholders approved on February 11, 2026. Six days earlier the Federal Trade Commission had issued a second request for information, which holds the antitrust waiting period open until 30 days after both companies comply. If the agreement is terminated in specified circumstances either side may owe the other 298.7 million dollars, and Skyworks would owe 100.0 million dollars if it falls to an antitrust or foreign investment block. The annual report said the company anticipated completion early in calendar year 2027; the quarterly report filed in July 2026 said it was increasingly hopeful of closing within the calendar year, with no assurance. 505152535455565758

What Qorvo keeps in house is process technology. It has developed and manufactures several generations of gallium arsenide and gallium nitride processes, which carry high power and high frequency signals better than ordinary silicon, and bulk and surface acoustic wave filters, the parts that pick one radio band out of the crowd. It also owns its flip chip, wire bond and wafer level packaging methods. Its Richardson, Texas plant sells gallium nitride and gallium arsenide foundry and assembly services and is accredited a Category 1A Trusted Source by the US Department of Defense, covering design, wafer fabrication, post processing, packaging, assembly and testing. The company counts about 2,700 patents expiring between 2026 and 2044, and says the business as a whole does not depend significantly on any particular patent. 5960616263

Competitors are named segment by segment: Analog Devices, Axiro Semiconductor, MACOM, Monolithic Power Systems, Renesas, Mini-Circuits, Silergy and Texas Instruments in High Performance Analog; Broadcom, Murata, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP, Qualcomm, RichWave, Silicon Laboratories, Skyworks and Vanchip in connectivity; Broadcom, Maxscend, Murata, Qualcomm, Skyworks and Vanchip in advanced cellular. Two other pressures sit behind that list. Some of its largest end customers and platform partners design and make competing parts themselves, and the chipset suppliers whose reference designs its products slot into have been building more of the radio front end into their own offerings. Trade rules press from both sides: US export restrictions have banned American companies from selling to certain of its customers, and tariffs are raising the cost of the foreign components and equipment it imports into its American plants. 646566676869

What drives growth, line by line

Revenue fell 1.1% in fiscal 2026 to 3,678.5 million dollars from 3,719.0 million, still well below the 4.6 billion of fiscal 2022, as falls at Advanced Cellular and Connectivity and Sensors outweighed a gain at High Performance Analog. What changed was the quality of the revenue rather than its size. Gross margin rose to 45.9% from 41.3%, which the company credits to pulling back from lower margin mass market Android smartphones and to a better mix in High Performance Analog, and operating income rose to 411.4 million dollars from 95.5 million on that margin and on smaller impairment charges. 70717273

Advanced Cellular Group. Much the largest of the three, more than two thirds of revenue, and the one the company is deliberately shrinking. Revenue fell 2.2%, by 58.0 million dollars, as products in the Android ecosystem lost ground and more content in flagship and premium phones filled part of the gap, which the filing ties to its decision to cut exposure to mass market Android and narrow its focus to the top tiers. Profit went the other way: operating income equal to 26.2% of the segment's revenue against 23.1% a year earlier, helped by mix and by 29.7 million dollars less operating expense as Android development was cut back. Apple and Samsung, the customers at about 50% and 10% of company revenue, buy mainly from this segment. 7475767731

High Performance Analog. The one line that grew, and the only one where defense money shows up: revenue up 10.7%, by 68.4 million dollars, to nearly a fifth of the company total. The filing credits 108.3 million dollars of increased content and programs in defense and aerospace, the cable industry's move to DOCSIS 4.0 broadband and higher demand for base station parts, less 27.7 million dollars that went with the silicon carbide power business sold in January 2025 and 9.0 million dollars of weaker power management demand from customers whose products tariffs have hit. Segment operating income reached 26.8% of its revenue, against 17.1%. 78757980

Connectivity and Sensors Group. The smallest line, a little over a tenth of revenue, and the only one that loses money. Revenue fell 10.8%, by 50.9 million dollars, as Wi-Fi components and ultra wideband sales dropped by 48.7 million dollars under a decision to narrow the range to higher margin products. The operating loss narrowed to 10.0% of the segment's revenue from 11.8%, on better product costs, mix and 14.3 million dollars less operating expense, part of that from selling the MEMS based sensing business in October 2025, which had lost 9.9 million dollars in fiscal 2026 and 15.4 million in fiscal 2025. This is also the segment where revised forecasts for one reporting unit triggered the year's goodwill and intangible impairment. 8175828349

By where customers are headquartered, the money moved toward the United States: American customers brought 2.3 billion dollars, 4.0% more than a year earlier, while China fell 23.5% to 474.9 million, the sharpest fall of any region. Taiwan rose 4.9% to 357.7 million and Europe 14.5% to 98.3 million, while Other Asia slipped 2.8% to 431.9 million. 36

The newest quarterly report, for the three months to June 27, 2026, sharpens the same pattern. Revenue fell 4.2% against the same quarter a year before, with Advanced Cellular down 94.7 million dollars on the same retreat from mass market Android and Connectivity and Sensors down 8.3 million, against 69.0 million more at High Performance Analog, 57.9 million of it from the defense and aerospace and infrastructure businesses. Gross margin reached 51.1% against 40.5%, and Connectivity and Sensors, which lost money through fiscal 2026, turned an operating profit. 848586878889

What comes next, in the company's own words: the decision taken in fiscal 2025 to reduce exposure to mass market Android has already cut revenue and it expects that to continue; it anticipated in the annual report that the mergers with Skyworks would be completed early in calendar year 2027, and in the quarterly report filed in July 2026 said it was increasingly hopeful the transaction would close within the calendar year, subject to the closing conditions and with no assurance of that timeline. 905458

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What the desk infers Inferred

1. Inferred

   The United States line in the revenue table is mostly Apple: Qorvo books its sales through Apple's contract manufacturers to a customer headquartered in America, which is why the American share is far larger than any American end market it describes.

   Because

   • Revenue is counted by the location of the customer's headquarters. 37
   • Apple, supplied through multiple contract manufacturers, accounted for 50% of revenue in fiscal 2026. 30
   • Customers headquartered in the United States accounted for 2.3 billion dollars, 63.0% of revenue. 36
   • All customers headquartered outside the United States together came to about 37% of revenue, less than Apple alone, so Apple's purchases cannot be sitting in the Taiwan line at 9.7% or the China line at 12.9%. 3836
   Confidence 80 of 100Wrong if A filing or disclosure showing that revenue from Apple's contract manufacturers is attributed to those manufacturers' own headquarters rather than to the United States.
2. Inferred

   Walking away from mass market Android phones has left Qorvo more concentrated on one customer, not less: the better margin came with a larger share of revenue resting on Apple.

   Because

   • Apple's share of revenue rose from 46% to 47% to 50% across fiscal 2024, 2025 and 2026, while Samsung's slipped from 12% to 10%. 31
   • The two largest end customers together came to 59% of revenue in fiscal 2026, against 57% and 58% in the two years before. 32
   • The fall in Advanced Cellular revenue was in Android ecosystem products, set against more content in flagship and premium phones, which the filing ties to its decision to reduce exposure to mass market Android. 76
   • Gross margin rose to 45.9% from 41.3% on that same strategy. 72
   Confidence 75 of 100Wrong if A fiscal year in which Apple's share of total revenue falls while Advanced Cellular revenue grows, or a filing naming large new flagship wins outside Apple and Samsung.
3. Inferred

   The drop in revenue from customers headquartered in China is mostly Qorvo's own retreat from mass market Android phones rather than ground lost to export rules or tariffs.

   Because

   • Revenue from customers headquartered in China fell 23.5% to 474.9 million dollars, the sharpest fall of any region, while the United States, Taiwan and Europe all grew. 36
   • The company puts the fall in Advanced Cellular revenue down to its own decision to reduce exposure to mass market Android smartphones. 76
   • It cut the workforce attached to the mass market Android business and 19.9 million dollars of product development costs for those phones. 4791
   • Its account of the year's revenue names the Android decision and the narrowing of Wi-Fi and ultra wideband, not export restrictions or lost customers. 7582
   Confidence 60 of 100Wrong if A filing that attributes the fall in China revenue to export restrictions, tariffs or a design lost at a named Chinese customer, or one showing the Android reduction fell mainly on customers headquartered elsewhere.