Qualcomm's 'performance-focused' layoffs hit India, starting in Bengaluru
Analysts put about 1,000 of its roughly 20,000 India jobs at risk, though sources say the final number will be lower.
Qualcomm has started laying off employees in India, its largest engineering base outside the US. The first round began at its Bengaluru office on Monday (Nov. 9), Financial Express reported Tuesday, days after the chipmaker began cutting jobs in the US.
The cuts are the India leg of a global reduction that CEO Cristiano Amon announced to staff in October. Qualcomm is also expected to file layoff notices in California in the coming days under the state's WARN Act, Investing.com reported, citing people familiar with the company's plans. Qualcomm declined to comment to Investing.com and didn't respond to Financial Express.
Nobody outside the company knows yet how many jobs are going. Qualcomm employs about 20,000 people in India. If the global cut is around 7% of the workforce, as people familiar with the plan told Financial Express, the India total would be "around 1,000 employees or a little higher than that," said Pareekh Jain, CEO of research firm EIIRTrend. Investing.com's sources said the actual number is expected to be "significantly lower."
mass layoffs in qualcomm India office 💀
— Asmit (@coolcoder56) November 10, 2026
senior engineers are most affected
According to Financial Express, the cuts are broad and include both senior engineers and recent hires. Some affected employees said they had received no prior performance feedback, even though the company calls the layoffs performance-driven. A post on X saying "senior engineers are most affected" had more than 380,000 views by Tuesday afternoon.
Affected employees have reportedly been offered severance of three months' pay, tied to tenure, plus one more month's salary if they sign their relieving documents within three days. Analysts expect another round in January. Qualcomm has engineering and research sites in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and the Delhi area, and hasn't said which ones are affected.
| What's known about Qualcomm's India layoffs | |
|---|---|
| Started | Nov. 9 in Bengaluru, in phases |
| India workforce | About 20,000 employees |
| Jobs at risk | Estimates range from 600 to 1,200 |
| Who's affected | Senior engineers and recent hires |
| Severance (reported) | 3 months' pay, +1 for signing in 3 days |
| Next round | Expected in January |
| Qualcomm's comment | None, and no confirmed number |
Sources: Financial Express, Investing.com, Trak.in. Table: EngineerPal
'The right people in the right roles'
Amon first described the layoffs in an Oct. 19 memo reviewed by Reuters. He called them a "performance-focused reduction" that would follow the company's annual employee reviews, with notifications starting in November. The goal, he wrote, was to build "a stronger performance culture" and to address areas where the company "has consistently fallen short of expectations."
"As we have expanded the business, so have the competencies and skills we require," Amon wrote. "We must have the right people in the right roles so they can perform at their best and the company can continue to succeed." The memo didn't say how many jobs would be cut. Investing.com's sources said the cuts aren't tied to Qualcomm's AI strategy.
They do come as Qualcomm's core business shrinks. Its fiscal fourth-quarter results, reported Nov. 4, showed revenue from smartphone chips down 26% year over year to $5.14 billion, as rising memory prices weighed on phone demand. Automotive chip revenue rose 89% to a record $1.99 billion, and Qualcomm says sales outside phones will grow more than 60% in fiscal 2027 as its data center chips ramp up.
The company had about 57,000 employees as of Sept. 27, according to Investing.com, up from about 52,000 a year earlier. Qualcomm hasn't said how many of them will be cut.
