Qualcomm R&D intensity worldwide 2016-2023

The ratio of Qualcomm's research and development (R&D) costs to its revenue amounted to some 25 percent in the 2023 fiscal year. In that financial year, the company incurred nearly nine billion R&D-related costs in total.

Qualcomm

Qualcomm is an American fabless semiconductor company that designs, manufactures, and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services, recognized for developing processors, connectivity solutions, displays, software, and charging products. Qualcomm’s technologies are used in mobile devices and other wireless products, with the mobile chip designer responsible for the Snapdragon suite of system on chip (SoC) integrated circuits.

SoCs

An SoC is an integrated circuit that combines all the functions of a computer on one IC or a microchip. SoCs typically integrate the central processor, graphics, and memory, and are commonly found in smartphones, tablets, wearables, and other IoT devices. As an SoC integrates software at the hardware level, it uses less power, has better performance, and requires less space due to very large-scale integration (VLSI) - hence its popularity within modern-day smartphones.