Core Viewpoint - Qualcomm's stock price dropped 4.8% to $169.27 after Mizuho Securities downgraded its rating and target price, citing challenges in mobile shipments and components for Apple [1][2] Group 1: Market Challenges - Mizuho Securities predicts a potential 7% reduction in Qualcomm's expectations for 2026 due to anticipated declines in mobile shipments and Apple's in-house modem development [1] - The smartphone market remains weak, with major clients shifting more work in-house, which poses a significant challenge for Qualcomm's growth [1][2] - Investors are preparing for Apple's gradual transition to in-house 5G technology, which could lead to Qualcomm losing its market share with Apple [2] Group 2: Product Performance - Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Plus processor, launched at CES 2026, claims to outperform Intel and AMD chips, but benchmark tests show it lags behind Apple's M4 chip [3][4] - In single-core tests, Snapdragon X2 Plus outperformed several Intel and AMD processors but fell short of the Apple M4 [4][7] - The Snapdragon X2 Plus shows a performance increase of 15% to 50% over its predecessor, yet it still struggles against Apple and x86 chips in the laptop market [10][13]

Core Viewpoint - Nvidia's upcoming ARM-based CPU, the N1X, has been spotted on Geekbench with disappointing performance scores, raising questions about its competitiveness against existing chips like Apple's M4 [1][2]. Group 1: Chip Performance - The Nvidia N1X scored only 1,169 in single-core performance and 2,417 in multi-core performance on Geekbench, significantly lower than Apple's M4, which scored 3,831 and 15,044 respectively [1][2]. - The N1X is listed as a four-core CPU, which is likely not representative of the final version, as higher-end models are expected to have more cores [2]. Group 2: Technical Specifications - The N1X is reported to have a clock speed of 3.2 GHz, but it is unclear if it operates at this speed consistently [2]. - The new chips are expected to be manufactured using TSMC's N3 node, potentially utilizing Nvidia's next-generation Rubin GPU architecture instead of the current Blackwell architecture [4][5]. Group 3: Market Context - The gaming industry poses significant challenges for new CPU architectures, and Nvidia's expertise may be crucial in enabling PC games to run on ARM [3]. - Collaboration with MediaTek may focus on 5G support, which could be essential for enterprise applications, although consumer PCs may not require this feature [3].