Qualcomm

Qualcomm Incorporated
Company typePublic
IndustryTelecoms equipments
Semiconductors
FoundedJuly 1985; 39 years ago (1985-07)
Founders
Headquarters
San Diego, California
,
U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
ProductsCDMA/WCDMA chipsets, Snapdragon, BREW, OmniTRACS, MediaFLO, QChat, mirasol displays, uiOne, Gobi, Qizx, CPU
RevenueIncrease US$38.96 billion (2024)
Increase US$10.07 billion (2024)
Increase US$10.14 billion (2024)
Total assetsIncrease US$55.15 billion (2024)
Total equityIncrease US$26.27 billion (2024)
Number of employees
c. 49,000 (2024)
Subsidiaries
Websitequalcomm.com
Footnotes / references
Financials as of September 29, 2024.[1]

Qualcomm Incorporated (/ˈkwɒlkɒm/)[2] is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware.[3] It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4G,[4] CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA and WCDMA mobile communications standards.

Qualcomm was established in 1985 by Irwin Jacobs and six other co-founders. Its early research into CDMA wireless cell phone technology was funded by selling a two-way mobile digital satellite communications system known as Omnitracs. After a heated debate in the wireless industry, CDMA was adopted as a 2G standard in North America, with Qualcomm's patents incorporated.[5] Afterwards, there was a series of legal disputes about pricing for licensing patents required by the standard.[6]

Over the years, Qualcomm has expanded into selling semiconductor products in a predominantly fabless manufacturing model. It also developed semiconductor components or software for vehicles, watches, laptops, wi-fi, smartphones, and other devices.

  1. ^ "US SEC: 2024 Form 10-K Qualcomm Incorporated". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. November 6, 2024.
  2. ^ Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
  3. ^ "EDGAR Search Results". sec.gov. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  4. ^ "Licensing | Intellectual Property". March 18, 2014. Archived from the original on April 2, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chafkin King 2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "First the FTC, now Apple: is Qualcomm's business model under threat?".