Qualcomm has been around since 1985 and pioneered vital components of the wireless technologies you use today. Fundamentally, the San Diego-based company invents and licenses technologies and designs semiconductor chips. Right now, Qualcomm is focused on things like 5G and artificial intelligence chips, but it has a has a massive amount of patents — over 130,000 if you include patent applications — and licensing them accounts for more than half of its operating income.
But alongside Qualcomm's history of innovation is a complex legal history and it's currently entangled in lawsuits with both the FTC and Apple.
Watch the video to see why Qualcomm's entire business model is being challenged.