Do we like Qualcomm?
Designs mobile, PC, car and AI chips and licenses wireless patents; based in San Diego, California.
Our score: 5 out of 10. A big, important chip maker with a long record of antitrust fines and fights over licensing. We'd call it mixed: strong tech, but a pushy history.
Qualcomm is a San Diego chip designer. Its processors sit inside a lot of the world's phones, and it earns extra money by licensing its wireless patents. Cristiano Amon is the CEO, and Bloomberg and WEF pages say he's still running it in 2026.
The company has had plenty of run-ins with competition regulators. The EU's General Court largely upheld a fine for predatory pricing and trimmed it to €238.7 million.
It's not all bad news. The EU court annulled a separate €997 million fine over payments to Apple, and the European Commission decided not to appeal. South Korea's regulator fined Qualcomm in 2016, and the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission announced a fine in 2017.
Right now it's trying to grow beyond phones. The company launched a data center brand called Dragonfly in 2026 and says 2026 is the year of AI agents. Our score is a middle one: good tech, but a history of leaning on its market power.