Qualcomm

San Diego-based semiconductor company, founded in 1985, that designs Snapdragon processors and modems and licenses wireless patents. It reported revenue of $44.3 billion for fiscal 2025.

Industry: Semiconductors and wireless technology licensing | Location: San Diego, United States | Founded: 1985

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm is a US semiconductor company that designs processors, modems and other chips for smartphones, PCs, cars and connected devices, and licenses its wireless patents to device makers. It is headquartered in San Diego, California, and its shares trade on Nasdaq under the symbol QCOM. Its annual report describes three reportable segments: QCT, the chip business; QTL, which licenses its patent portfolio, including cellular standard-essential patents; and QSI, which makes strategic investments, mainly through Qualcomm Ventures.

The company was formed in California in July 1985 by a group of seven including Irwin Jacobs and Andrew Viterbi, reincorporated in Delaware in 1991 and listed its shares the same year. Cristiano Amon has been president and chief executive since June 2021, Akash Palkhiwala has been chief financial officer since November 2019 and also chief operating officer since January 2024, and Mark McLaughlin chairs the board.

Qualcomm's products include the Snapdragon platforms for mobile, PC, audio and automotive uses and the Dragonwing line for industrial and edge networking. It builds on its Hexagon NPU, Oryon and Kryo CPUs, Adreno GPUs and the Qualcomm AI Stack. In fiscal 2025 Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi each accounted for 10 percent or more of revenue.

Qualcomm acquired the server CPU startup Nuvia for about $1.4 billion in 2021 and the vehicle-to-everything chip company Autotalks in June 2025. It completed its acquisition of Alphawave Semi, a high-speed connectivity company reported at $2.4 billion, in December 2025, about a quarter earlier than first expected.

For fiscal 2025, which ended on 28 September 2025, Qualcomm reported revenue of $44.28 billion. Net income fell 45 percent to $5.54 billion after a $5.7 billion fourth-quarter tax charge to write down federal deferred tax assets. It had about 52,000 workers in more than 200 locations in 38 countries.

In Saudi Arabia, Qualcomm worked with HUMAIN for 12 months on the Horizon Ultra, an enterprise AI PC built on the Snapdragon X2 Elite platform that HUMAIN unveiled at LEAP 2026, and Aramco named it as a collaborator on edge computing hardware at the same event.

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