Who owns Qualcomm?

Qualcomm is an American multinational corporation that creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. They own patents to critical mobile communication standards, including:

• 5G

• 4G

• CDMA2000

• TD-SCDMA

• WCDMA

Qualcomm was founded in 1985 by Irwin M. Jacobs and a team of seven former Linkabit employees. The company was named Qualcomm for "QUAlity COMMunications". The company was started as a research and development center largely for government and defense projects.

Qualcomm merged with Omninet in 1988 and raised $3.5 million in funding which led to the production of the Omnitracs satellite communications system. Qualcomm grew quickly due to the demand for Omnitracs and had $32 million in revenue by 1989. Omnitracs profits helped fund the research and development of cell phone technology.

In 1985, Qualcomm was hired to provide research and testing for a satellite network proposal. The following year, Qualcomm filed its first CDMA patent, which established its overall approach to CDMA and became one of the most frequently cited technical documents in history.

Qualcomm further developed the CDMA techniques for commercial use and submitted them to the Cellular Telephone Industries Association in 1989 as an alternative to TDMA networks. After a tumultuous battle in the wireless industry, the 2G standard was adopted with Qualcomm's CDMA patents incorporated.

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

Qualcomm is headquartered in San Diego, California, and is broken down into three divisions:

• Qualcomm CDMA technologies

• Qualcomm technology licensing

• Qualcomm strategic initiatives

In 2021, Qualcomm had annual revenue of $33.57 billion with over 45,000 employees working for the company.