Topic
22 facts from 6 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
1985
Qualcomm was founded in July 1985 by seven people, including Andrew Viterbi and Irwin Jacobs, who had worked at Linkabit.
“they found a new company in July of 1985 with seven, seven in total, Andy, Erwin, and five other of the best Linkabit engineers.”
1986
Qualcomm patented CDMA for terrestrial cellular networks in 1986 as US patent 4,901,307.
“they patent the method and technique for code division multiple access applied to terrestrial cellular networks in 1986 in US patent number 4,901,307”
1989
Omnitracks, the trucking satellite messaging product, generated $32 million of revenue in 1989, its first year.
“And in 1989, in the first year of business for Omnitracks, they do $32 million in revenue.”
1989
Pactel Wireless put up $1 million to fund a Qualcomm CDMA prototype.
“So they put up a million dollars to fund a prototype. They're like, okay, prove to us that this works.”
1990
Qualcomm held a successful CDMA demonstration in Manhattan in February 1990.
“So in February of 1990, they do a successful demo in Manhattan in New York City.”
1990s
Qualcomm formed a joint venture with Northern Telecom (Nortel) to manufacture CDMA base station equipment.
“On the infrastructure side, they partner with Northern Telecom, Nortel, to do a JV to manufacture CDMA base station equipment.”
1991
Qualcomm went public in December 1991, raising $68 million.
“In December of 1991, on the back of all this, they go public. There is a paltry $68 million in their IPO.”
1995
Qualcomm's revenue was $383 million in 1995 and $814 million in 1996.
“Qualcomm does $383 million in revenue in 1995. In 1996, they do $814 million in revenue.”
1999
Qualcomm sold its base-station infrastructure business to Ericsson in March 1999.
“So, in March of 99, they sell their infrastructure business, the base stations, to Ericsson, which was formerly one of their competitors.”
1999
Kyocera bought Qualcomm's mobile phone business in December 1999.
“December 1999, Kyocera buys Qualcomm's mobile phone business.”
2000
Qualcomm's stock rose 2,621% during 2000, which the hosts say made it the year's best-performing stock.
“the Qualcomm stock appreciates 2,621% for the 366 days of the year 2000.”
2005
Qualcomm acquired Flarion Technologies in 2005 for $600 million, gaining OFDMA patents important to 4G.
“Also in 2005, Qualcomm buys Flareon Technologies for $600 million.”
2008
Around 2008, Yakovenko was working at Qualcomm on Brew, a flip-phone operating system and early mobile app store.
“I was still working on Brew, which is this flip phone operating system”
2012
In 2012, Qualcomm built a $2 billion fab for Mirasol reflective displays, which ended up with no customers according to the hosts.
“on a reflective display technology called Mirasol. They spun up a $2 billion fab to make it.”
2018
Broadcom attempted a hostile takeover of Qualcomm in 2018 at a $117 billion valuation, and the Trump administration blocked it on national security grounds.
“2018, Broadcom comes in and tries to do a hostile takeover at a $117 billion valuation.”
2019
Ben Gilbert said Apple's 2019 settlement with Qualcomm included about $4.5 billion for a six-year patent license.
“I think it was $4.5 billion for a six-year deal.”
2020
By 2020, Navrina Singh had worked more than two decades as a computer engineer at companies including Qualcomm and Microsoft.
“By then, Navrina Singh had already clocked over two decades as a computer engineer in big tech, at companies like Qualcomm and Microsoft.”
2021
Qualcomm bought Nuvia, founded by former Apple silicon engineers, for $1.4 billion in 2021.
“So Qualcomm bought this company called Nuvia for 1.4 billion dollars.”
2023
Meta worked with Qualcomm on a custom version of Qualcomm's next-generation VR and mixed reality chipset used in Quest 3.
“Qualcomm just came out with their next generation chipset for for VR and MR. Um, that we worked with them on a on a kind of custom version of it”
2023
Qualcomm announced that its Snapdragon chips would support the C2PA content provenance standard.
“Qualcomm just announced that Snapdragon is going to be C2PA compliant.”
Undated
Yakovenko says he recruited many principal-engineer-level colleagues from Qualcomm to build Solana.
“I was able to pull a lot of like kind of principal engineer level folks,”
Undated
AMD sold its mobile graphics IP to Qualcomm, which uses it in the Adreno line, whose name is an anagram of Radeon.
“It is the Ardeno, A-R-D-E-N-O processors, and do you know why it's called the Ardeno or Ardeno?”
Episodes