Whatco

Qualcomm

Semiconductors · United States

Qualcomm designs Snapdragon and other chips for phones, cars and connected devices and earns royalties by licensing its wireless patents to device makers.

What makes it different

Three customers bring in over half of revenue.

54%Revenue from three customersFY2025

Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi each account for more than 10% of sales, so a few phone makers shape results.

How big it is

How big is Qualcomm?

$44.3BTotal revenuesFY2025
$9.0BR&D spendFY2025
52,000WorkersFY2025
How it makes money FY2025

Phone chips lead, plus licensing.

  • Handsets63%$27.8B
  • IoT15%$6.6B
  • Licensing13%$5.6B
  • Automotive9%$4.0B
  • Other1%$335M
How the business works

Invent once. Earn from chips and royalties.

  1. 1Wireless and AI technology
  2. 2Snapdragon chips
  3. 3Patents to device makers

The same inventions earn twice: as chip sales and as royalties on other companies' devices.

Who owns it
  • Vanguard Group Inc.10.53%
  • BlackRock, Inc.8.71%

CEO: Cristiano R. Amon

Who it competes with
Key moments
  1. 1985Seven former Linkabit colleagues found Qualcomm
  2. 1995CDMA rolls out commercially
  3. 2018NXP purchase agreement terminated
  4. 20195G is commercialised
  5. 2019Settlement with Apple
Sources

Every number on this page comes from Qualcomm's own reports.

Full profile

The rest of the story is in the app.

What Qualcomm tracks19 metrics
R&D ratio
Workers
Results, quarter by quarterwith a chart
Revenue
Profit
Margin
Where the money comes from4 regions
China (including Hong Kong)
United States
South Korea
The full timeline16 moments
2024
2025
2026
Qualcomm vs Broadcomside by side
Revenue
Profit
People
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