QUALCOMM INC/DE

Qualcomm Incorporated is a global technology company that was incorporated in California in 1985 and reincorporated in Delaware in 1991. The company operates on a 52-53 week fiscal year, ending on the last Sunday in September. Qualcomm is a leader in the development and commercialization of foundational technologies for the wireless industry, including 3G, 4G, and 5G wireless connectivity, and high-performance and low-power computing including on-device artificial intelligence (AI). The company's business strategy involves driving innovation and collaborating with various ecosystems to enable a global environment of continued progress and growth. Qualcomm is organized into three reportable segments: QCT (Qualcomm CDMA Technologies), QTL (Qualcomm Technology Licensing), and QSI (Qualcomm Strategic Initiatives). QCT develops and supplies integrated circuits and system software based on 3G/4G/5G and other technologies, including RFFE (radio frequency front-end), for use in mobile devices, automotive systems, and IoT. QTL grants licenses or provides rights to use portions of Qualcomm's intellectual property portfolio, which includes certain patent rights essential to and/or useful in the manufacture and sale of certain wireless products. QSI makes strategic investments. The company's website is www.qualcomm.com, and its ticker symbol is QCOM. Qualcomm's business segments and strategies are focused on mobile technologies, automotive, and IoT. The company's mobile technologies include intelligent computing and advancing connectivity, with a focus on 5G and AI. In automotive, Qualcomm's connectivity, digital cockpit, and advanced driver assistance and automated driving (ADAS/AD) platforms are helping to connect cars to their environment and the cloud, creating unique in-cabin experiences and enabling a comprehensive assisted and automated driving solution. In IoT, Qualcomm's inventions have helped power growth in industries and applications such as consumer, edge networking, and industrial. Qualcomm's breakthrough inventions and licensing programs have been integral to the demand and evolution of the mobile industry. The company's intellectual property includes patents, patent applications, and trade secrets applicable to products that implement any version of CDMA and/or OFDMA technologies, which are the primary digital technologies currently used to transmit voice or data over radio waves using a public or private cellular wireless network. Qualcomm's patents cover a wide range of technologies across the entire wireless system, including wireless devices and network infrastructure equipment. The wireless industry continues to transition to 5G technology, with 5G network deployments and device launches continuing, particularly in emerging regions. 5G is designed to support multi-gigabit data rates, low latency, and greater capacity than previous generations of mobile technology, enabling enhanced mobile broadband experiences, including ultra-high definition (4K) video streaming and sharing, near-instantaneous access to cloud services, immersive cloud gaming and XR, and new consumer and enterprise services. The combination of 5G and AI is expected to enable these experiences to be more immersive, intuitive, and interactive. Consumer demand for smartphones is projected to decrease by a mid to high-single digit percentage in 2023 compared to 2022, primarily driven by weakness in the macroeconomic environment. However, the smartphone continues to be the go-to device for social networking, music and video streaming, photography and video capture, e-commerce, gaming, email, web browsing, and more. The combination of 5G and AI is expected to enable these experiences to be more immersive, intuitive, and interactive. Automotive: According to analyst data, 71% of new vehicles produced in 2030 are projected to have embedded cellular connectivity, with 71% of those vehicles featuring 5G connectivity. Digitalization of the automotive cockpit continues to transform the in-vehicle experience, enabling greater personalization of content and settings for both drivers and passengers. Car-to-cloud platforms are helping automakers improve cost efficiencies, create new service opportunities throughout the lifecycle of a vehicle, and gain valuable vehicle and usage analytics. High-performance, low-power computing technologies from mobile are being used to improve vehicles with advanced driver assistance and automated driving features. IoT: Industry demand for IoT devices continued to grow across consumer, edge networking, and industrial applications in fiscal 2023. However, the growth rate slowed compared to prior projections and elevated channel inventory lowered demand for semiconductors from multiple industries within IoT in fiscal 2023. The installed base of IoT devices is projected to increase by 70% from 2023 to 2026. Consumer IoT products continue to adopt the latest mobile connectivity, processing, and intelligence technologies, enabling new services, applications, and experiences. Edge networking advances are helping to drive demand for edge networking products, including mobile broadband and wireless access points. Advances in Wi-Fi are driving consumer and enterprise demand for the latest Wi-Fi 6, 6E, and 7 access point technologies. Industrial IoT devices are bringing near real-time data and insights in industries such as retail, transportation, logistics, utilities, and energy. Technology Overview: The wireless industry requires continuous innovation to improve user experiences, support new services, expand on-device processing and AI capabilities at low power, and increase wireless connectivity capacity and performance. Relevant cellular wireless technologies can be grouped into the following categories: CDMA-based, OFDMA-based, and other (non-cellular) wireless technologies. Qualcomm has a long history of investing heavily in research and development and has developed many of these foundational technologies that help drive the continued evolution of the wireless industry. The company has developed and commercialized leading edge chipset platforms for mobile, automotive, and IoT, and has also developed and acquired significant related intellectual property. 5G is designed to transform the role of wireless technologies and incorporates advancements on 3G/4G features, including device-to-device capabilities and the use of all different types of spectrum. 5G is designed to target diverse services with very different technical requirements, utilize diverse types of spectrum, and support diverse types of deployment scenarios. Predominant technological components of 5G include ultra-reliable, low-latency communication, very wide channel bandwidth, new channel coding schemes, MIMO, and mobile mmWave to increase the data rate offered to users. 5G is designed to support seamless compatibility with 3G/4G technologies through multimode devices. 5G is also designed to strengthen the end-to-end 5G system foundation and proliferate 5G to virtually all devices and use cases. Other (non-cellular) wireless technologies include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and position location technologies. Qualcomm is a leading contributor to the evolution of Wi-Fi technologies, including Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7, which introduce enhanced speeds, latency, and network capacity, as well as support for advanced features like 320MHz channels, 4K QAM, and advanced multi-link implementations. Qualcomm is also a leader in the standardization and productization of many 4G- and 5G-based positioning capabilities, including A-GPS, A-GNSS, WLAN positioning, and observed time difference of arrival positioning for LTE access. The company's products and intellectual property now support multiple constellations for A-GNSS, including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, NavIC, BeiDou, QZSS, and SBAS augmentation systems; Wi-Fi-based and Bluetooth-based positioning for WLAN; and third-party inertial sensors. The combination of these different location solutions is used to ensure accurate location availability in all areas. Qualcomm is also a leader in the standardization of high accuracy position techniques for 5G NR access and support techniques to improve resilience of location.