
Qualcomm’s 5G: Generational Leadership, Foundational Technology
Some inventions simply make life better, easier, more productive. Others change the world forever.
Agricultural advances such as Archimedes’ Screw (irrigation), fertilizer, the mechanical plow, and refrigeration enabled a growing world to eat.
Revolutions in transportation, breakthroughs in energy, building materials, electronics, and manufacturing, each in their own way set the world galloping – or more appropriately, driving – toward a new era of productivity and prosperity.
Creating Foundational 5G Technology: A Case Study of Qualcomm traces the evolution of the latest world-changing, paradigm-shifting technology.
This case study describes Qualcomm’s role in making scientific discoveries, introduces key inventions, and provides a window into what it took to create the foundational technologies on which the 5G ecosystem is built.

The report shows the journey of the technical and strategic challenges Qualcomm faced, as the only company in the United States positioned to undertake early stage R&D for 5G technology.

See how Qualcomm’s leadership on the path from 1G to 5G shaped the creation of foundational technology for 5G.
Explore the decision making around Qualcomm’s investments in 5G as it weighed enormous risks and costs on the way from early stage R&D to commercialization.
The journey to 5G offers important lessons for inventors, entrepreneurs and policymakers. Qualcomm made the investments, took the risks, created the inventions, and led its industry to market. Each step sheds light on how American economic policy that incentivizes innovators like Qualcomm enhances our ability to compete as a nation on the global stage.
You see us everywhere you see 5G.