Qualcomm reported lower revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter as a sharp rise in automotive chip sales was offset by declining handset revenue.

The semiconductor company's fourth-quarter profit came in at $1.25 billion, or $1.17 a share. That compares with a loss of $3.12 billion, or $2.89 a share, a year earlier.

Stripping out certain one-time items, adjusted earnings were $2.17 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting $2.16 a share.

Revenue fell 8% to $10.32 billion, beating analyst expectations for $10.12 billion in revenue.

The Qualcomm CDMA Technologies segment, which includes sales of the company's chips, reported an 8% revenue decline to $9.02 billion. Within the segment, revenue from handsets fell 26% to $5.14 billion, while automotive revenue was up 89% at $1.99 billion. Internet of things revenue grew 4% to $1.89 billion.

Revenue from the Qualcomm Technology Licensing segment fell 7% to $1.3 billion.

Shares fell 7% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

The results come as Qualcomm is pushing to expand into the fast-growing data-center market, with two custom-silicon programs set to ramp up in fiscal 2027. Chief Executive Cristiano Amon said the company continues to target $5 billion in data center revenue for the fiscal year.

"Fiscal 2027 marks the start of our non-handset revenue inflection, including the ramp of our Data Center business," Amon said.

For the current fiscal first quarter, Qualcomm is projecting adjusted earnings between $2.15 and $2.35 a share on revenue between $10.4 billion and $11.2 billion.

Analysts currently expect adjusted earnings of $2.26 a share on $10.49 billion of revenue for the first quarter.

Qualcomm's results came hours after the company was selected by SpaceX to supply cellular technology as it expands Starlink into the wireless market.