What does Qualcomm do?

American semiconductor and wireless technology company behind CDMA, 5G patents and Snapdragon processors.

Is Qualcomm publicly traded?

Yes — Qualcomm trades on NASDAQ under the ticker QCOM.

Where is Qualcomm headquartered?

Qualcomm is headquartered in San Diego, US.

Qualcomm

NASDAQ: QCOM

San Diego, US · Founded 1985 · Public

Find your way into Qualcomm

Qualcomm designs the Snapdragon mobile processors and modems and licenses the CDMA and 5G patents behind most smartphones. Founded in San Diego in 1985, it is listed on Nasdaq as QCOM.

Also known as QCOM · Qualcomm Incorporated

Company profile

researched Aug 2026

Qualcomm Incorporated is an American multinational technology corporation headquartered in San Diego, California. It develops and designs technologies for global communications and computing, including mobile networks, smart devices and semiconductors such as mobile processors and artificial intelligence chips. The company holds essential patents for global mobile communication standards including 5G, 4G, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA and WCDMA.

Product lines include CDMA/WCDMA chipsets, Snapdragon system-on-chip processors, the Dragonwing line aimed at industrial and enterprise embedded AI, edge computing and connectivity applications, plus BREW, OmniTRACS, MediaFLO, QChat, mirasol displays, uiOne, Gobi and Qizx. Qualcomm operates largely under a fabless manufacturing model, and its Snapdragon processors are used in smartphones and other smart devices by multiple manufacturers. Subsidiaries include Airgo Networks, CSR plc, Ikanos Communications, Nuvia, Qualcomm Atheros, SiRF and Arduino. Recent expansion areas include embedded artificial intelligence, automotive, Internet of Things, augmented reality and virtual reality.

As of fiscal 2025 the company reported revenue of $44.28 billion, operating income of $12.36 billion, net income of $5.541 billion, total assets of $50.14 billion and total equity of $21.21 billion, with about 52,000 employees. Cristiano Amon serves as CEO and Mark D. McLaughlin as chairman.

Founding story

Qualcomm was established on July 1, 1985 by seven former Linkabit employees led by Irwin Jacobs; other co-founders were Andrew Viterbi, Franklin Antonio, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen and Harvey White. The name was derived from "Quality Communications." Jacobs and Viterbi were both former electrical engineering professors who had co-founded Linkabit in 1968 with Leonard Kleinrock, a consulting firm focused on advanced digital communication technologies primarily for government and defense customers; Linkabit was sold to M/A-COM in 1980 and the pair departed in 1985. At Qualcomm, Jacobs became CEO and Viterbi CTO. The company began as a contract research and development center largely serving government and defense projects before shifting toward CDMA research, which it argued offered greater capacity and efficiency than the then industry-preferred TDMA.

Business model

Qualcomm combines licensing of standard-essential wireless patents with sales of semiconductor products designed in-house and manufactured by third parties under a fabless model. In 2000, 39 percent of sales came from CDMA technology, followed by licensing at 22 percent, wireless at 22 percent and other products at 17 percent. Following a 1998-1999 restructuring, the company divested its base station and handset manufacturing businesses to concentrate on higher-margin patents, chipsets, technology development and licensing.

Revenue derives from licensing standard-essential wireless patents and from sales of semiconductor products including chipsets and system-on-chips, supplemented historically by systems such as Omnitracs. Fiscal 2025 revenue was $44.28 billion.

Traction

Fiscal 2025 results included $44.28 billion in revenue, $12.36 billion operating income and $5.541 billion net income, with roughly 52,000 employees. At its June 2026 investor day Qualcomm raised fiscal 2029 targets to $40 billion in non-handset revenue, roughly double its prior goal, including more than $15 billion from data center, with handsets projected to supply about a third of chip revenue.

Latest developments

Qualcomm announced a definitive agreement on June 21, 2026 to acquire AI infrastructure company Modular, disclosed the deal on June 24, 2026, and closed it on July 29, 2026 in an all-stock transaction under which Qualcomm expects to issue up to 19.2 million common shares as a private placement to Modular equity holders. Modular co-founder and CEO Chris Lattner became executive vice president of advanced AI software and platforms, with Mojo, MAX and Modular Cloud continuing as products supported across CPUs, GPUs, NPUs and custom silicon, including hardware Qualcomm does not manufacture. Separately, in November 2024 Bloomberg reported that Qualcomm's interest in a full acquisition of Intel had cooled amid financial and regulatory concerns, with the company instead considering acquiring parts of Intel's business.

▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies

Market position

Qualcomm is a major force in the semiconductor industry and a leader in wireless communication standards, with Snapdragon processors widely used across smartphones and other smart devices, particularly in the Android ecosystem, and a large standard-essential patent portfolio spanning CDMA through 5G. A 2025 report highlighted the company's strength in 'true value' 5G patents. Its scale attracted a rejected $103 billion (later raised to $121 billion) takeover approach from Broadcom, and in 2024 Qualcomm was reported as a potential acquirer of Intel. Positioning in AI accelerators is set against peers including Nvidia and AMD.

Technology

Qualcomm's core technology is code-division multiple access (CDMA), which assigns unique codes so multiple users can share the same frequency band simultaneously, and its successors in 3G, 4G and 5G cellular standards. The company holds standard-essential patents for 5G, 4G, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA and WCDMA. Its semiconductor portfolio includes the Snapdragon system-on-chip family integrating CPU, GPU and other components; the Scorpion mobile CPU announced in 2005; the first Snapdragon SoC shipments in 2007; a first single-chip mobile phone launched in 1999; a first 5G modem chip announced in 2016 with a prototype demonstrated in 2017 and first 5G antennas in 2018; and millimeter wave and MIMO work. The Dragonwing line targets embedded AI, edge computing and advanced connectivity. Through the Modular acquisition Qualcomm owns the Mojo systems programming language, the MAX inference serving framework and Modular Cloud, a platform for running models across CPUs, GPUs, NPUs and custom silicon without per-accelerator code rewrites.

Go-to-market

Handset and smart device manufacturers licensing patents and buying chipsets, cellular network operators and carriers, and increasingly automotive, robotics, industrial edge, IoT, PC and data center customers. Early Omnitracs customers were trucking companies, including Schneider National.

Geography

Headquartered in San Diego, California, serving customers worldwide, with offices established in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas around 2000. By 2001, 65 percent of revenue came from outside the United States, with 35 percent from South Korea.

History

Qualcomm merged with Omninet in 1988 and raised $3.5 million to produce the Omnitracs two-way mobile satellite communications system for trucking companies. Headcount grew from eight employees in 1986 to 620 in 1991, and 1989 revenue reached $32 million, half of it from an Omnitracs contract with Schneider National. Omnitracs profits funded CDMA research; the company designed its first CDMA cellular base station in 1990, signed an agreement with Korea's ETRI in 1991 that preceded Korea adopting CDMA as a national standard, began manufacturing CDMA phones, base stations and chips in 1992, and agreed in May 1993 to supply 36,000 CDMA phones to US West. Operating at a loss through the early 1990s, Qualcomm filed an IPO in September 1991 raising $68 million and raised a further $486 million in 1995 through the sale of 11.5 million shares to fund mass manufacturing. Revenue was $383 million in 1995 and $814 million in 1996. A 1998 restructuring cut 700 jobs and spun off the base station and handset manufacturing businesses; the base station division had been losing $400 million a year. By 2000 the company had 6,300 employees, $3.2 billion in revenue and $670 million in profit, with offices established in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas; by 2001, 65 percent of revenue came from outside the United States, 35 percent from South Korea. Paul E. Jacobs became CEO in 2005, refocusing R&D toward the Internet of Things, and Qualcomm acquired Flarion Technologies, an OFDMA wireless broadband developer, the same year. Steven Mollenkopf was named successor in December 2013, broadening focus to automotive, wearables, PCs and data centers. Qualcomm agreed in October 2016 to acquire NXP Semiconductors for $47 billion, gaining U.S. antitrust approval in April 2017 with some standard-essential patents excluded, but the deal ultimately fell through. Broadcom made a $103 billion unsolicited offer for Qualcomm, which was rejected, then pursued a hostile takeover raising its offer to $121 billion. Cristiano Amon became CEO in 2021.

Risks & controversies

Qualcomm has faced legal and regulatory disputes in several countries over patent licensing and competition practices, including antitrust cases brought by authorities in the United States, the European Union and Asia, with penalties reported in China, Europe, Korea and Taiwan, and litigation with manufacturers including Apple. The adoption of CDMA as a 2G standard in North America led to disputes over pricing and access to essential patents. Commentators have questioned the sustainability of its patent enforcement strategy and the degree of diversification away from mobile patents. The planned $47 billion NXP acquisition, though cleared by U.S. antitrust regulators, ultimately collapsed amid U.S.-China trade tensions, and Broadcom's hostile takeover attempt was investigated by regulators. Reported obstacles to an Intel acquisition included Intel's rumored debt of up to $50 billion and expected regulatory scrutiny.

Compiled by commissioned research from 6 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.

Key figures

latest reported

EmployeesJan 202552,000 people

Fiscal 2029 data center revenue targetJun 2026$15B

Fiscal 2029 non-handset revenue targetJun 2026$40B

Net incomeJan 2025$5.5B

Operating incomeJan 2025$12.4B

ProfitJan 2000$670M

RevenueJan 2025$44.3B

Share of revenue from outside the United StatesJan 200165%

Total assetsJan 2025$50.1B

Total equityJan 2025$21.2B

Company-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.

Acquisitions · 3

Early investors' stakes continue via these deals

Atheros Communications

Wireless LAN chipsets (ATHR); acquired by Qualcomm in 2011.

Iridigm Display

Mirasol interferometric modulation display technology for mobile devices (acquired by Qualcomm).

Iridium

Acquired by Qualcomm (Gabriel II exit).

Timeline · 19

launches, deals, and filings

Jul 2026

Qualcomm closes all-stock acquisition of Modular

Announced June 24, 2026 under a definitive agreement signed June 21, 2026; Qualcomm expects to issue up to 19.2 million common shares as a private placement to Modular equity holders. Modular CEO Chris Lattner became EVP of advanced AI software and platforms, and Mojo, MAX and Modular Cloud continue as products.