Founded July 1 in San Diego by Irwin Jacobs, Andrew Viterbi and five other Linkabit alumni; initial product was OmniTRACS satellite messaging for trucking, generating early cash flow that funded CDMA research.

IPO on NASDAQ December 13 at /share, raising M; capital funded CDMA chipset and infrastructure development that defined the next 30 years.

Telecom Industry Association adopted Qualcomm's CDMA technology as IS-95 standard; unleashed a global wireless royalty stream that has since generated tens of billions in licensing revenue.

First commercial CDMA network launched in Hong Kong by Hutchison Telecom; PCS networks in the US followed in 1996, creating Qualcomm's first chip-and-license revenue stream.

Launched first Snapdragon predecessor MSM6500 cellular baseband chip, spinning Qualcomm into a fabless smartphone-SoC powerhouse over the next decade.

Filed initial Snapdragon trademark; first integrated apps-processor + modem SoC (QSD8250) shipped to HTC, Toshiba and Acer in 2008-09 smartphones.

Apple iPhone launched without Qualcomm modem (used Infineon), but Qualcomm CDMA basebands powered every Verizon/Sprint smartphone in the US through 2010.

Acquired Atheros Communications for .1B, adding Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo chips; gave Qualcomm the connectivity portfolio to dominate smartphone SoCs through 2025.

Announced $47B agreement to acquire NXP Semiconductors; the auto-focused deal would have made Qualcomm the largest auto-chip supplier but failed in 2018 over China antitrust delays.

Apple sued Qualcomm over B in withheld royalty rebates, kicking off a two-year global IP war that ended with the November 2019 settlement.

President Trump blocked Broadcom's $130B hostile takeover bid March 12 via CFIUS, citing 5G national-security concerns; preserved Qualcomm independence and accelerated US 5G leadership push.

Walked away from $44B NXP acquisition after China refused to clear the deal in trade-war retaliation; Qualcomm paid NXP $2B breakup fee and launched a $30B stock buyback.

Settled all litigation with Apple, ending two-year royalty/IP fight; Apple agreed to a six-year licensing deal and made Qualcomm exclusive 5G modem supplier through iPhone 12 era.

Cloud AI 100 entered sampling, first dedicated data-center inference accelerator on 7nm at up to 400 TOPS/75W; targeted hyperscale inference but never gained meaningful share against NVIDIA.

Acquired Nuvia for .4B, gaining server-class Arm CPU design team led by ex-Apple silicon architects Gerard Williams III, Manu Gulati and John Bruno.

Snapdragon X Elite unveiled at Snapdragon Summit October 24, Oryon-based 4nm Arm SoC promising 45 TOPS NPU and Apple-class PC performance; first credible Arm-Windows assault on x86 since 2018.

Snapdragon X Elite Copilot+ PCs launched June 18 with Microsoft, the first Arm-based wave of Windows 11 AI PCs; Surface Pro/Laptop and Lenovo, HP, Dell partners shipped initial volume.

Won Delaware jury verdict against Arm December 20, confirming Nuvia Oryon cores were properly licensed under Qualcomm's ALA; preserved Snapdragon X Elite/Extreme Arm-PC roadmap.

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme unveiled with Oryon Prime cores up to 5GHz on TSMC N3P, doubling NPU TOPS to 80; targeted Copilot+ AI PCs and high-end Lenovo/Microsoft Surface lineup.