What changed in Qualcomm Inc/De's 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 28, 2025

Political actions, including trade protection and national security policies of the U.S. and Chinese governments, such as tariffs, bans or placing companies on restricted entity lists, have in the past, currently are and could in the future limit or prevent us from transacting business with certain of our Chinese or Chinese-affiliated customers or suppliers, limit, prevent or discourage such customers or suppliers from transacting business with us, or make it more expensive to do so. Given our revenue concentration in China, if, due to actual, threatened or potential U.S. or Chinese government actions or policies: we were further limited in, or prohibited from, selling our integrated circuit products to Chinese or Chinese-affiliated customers; our non-Chinese OEM customers were limited in, or prohibited from, selling devices that incorporate our integrated circuit products into China; Chinese OEMs develop and use their own integrated circuit products or use our competitors' integrated circuit products in some or all of their devices rather than our integrated circuit products; Chinese tariffs on our integrated [added] circuit products or on devices which incorporate our integrated circuit products made purchasing such products or devices more expensive to our Chinese customers or Chinese consumers; or our Chinese licensees delay or cease making payments of royalties they owe us, our business, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition could be materially harmed.

[added] We have engaged in litigation and arbitration in the past and may need to further litigate or arbitrate in the future to enforce our contract and/or intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of proprietary rights of others. As a result of such litigation or arbitration, we could lose our ability to enforce one or more patents, portions of our license agreements could be determined to be invalid or unenforceable (which may in turn result in other licensees either not complying with their existing license agreements or initiating litigation or arbitration), license terms (including but not limited to royalty rates for the use of our intellectual property) could be imposed that are less favorable to us than existing terms, and we could incur substantial costs. Actions we take to enforce our contract or intellectual property rights could be costly and could absorb significant management time and attention, which, in turn, could negatively impact our results of operations and cash flows. Further, even a positive resolution to our enforcement efforts may take time to conclude, which may reduce our revenues and cash resources available for other purposes, such as research and development, in the periods prior to conclusion.

[added] Finally, the intellectual property ownership and license rights, including copyrights and patents, surrounding AI technologies, which we are increasingly building into our product offerings, have not been fully addressed by U.S. or foreign courts, laws or regulations, and the use of AI in the development of our products and services could result in our loss of, or failure to obtain, intellectual property rights, as well as subject us to risks related to intellectual property infringement or misappropriation.

Our products may be responsible for critical functions in our customers' products and networks. Failure of our products to perform to specifications, meet certain regulatory or industry standards (including product safety and information security standards, which may differ by region, geography and industry, and which are particularly stringent in the automotive industry), or other product defects, errors or security vulnerabilities, could lead to substantial damage to the products we sell to our customers, the devices into which our products are integrated and the end users of such devices, and potentially to our customers' IT infrastructure. Such defects, errors or security vulnerabilities could give rise to significant costs, including [added] costs related to developing solutions, recalling products or participating in customer recalls (for example, in the automotive industry), repairing or replacing defective products, writing down defective inventory or indemnification obligations under our agreements, and could result in the loss of sales and divert the attention of our engineering personnel from our product development efforts. In addition, defects, errors or security vulnerabilities in our products could result in failure to achieve market acceptance, a loss of design wins, a shifting of business to our competitors, and litigation or regulatory actions against us, and could harm our reputation, our relationships with customers and partners and our ability to attract new customers, as well as the perceptions of our brand. Other potential adverse impacts of product defects, errors or security vulnerabilities include shipment delays, write-offs of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, and losses on unfavorable purchase commitments. In addition, defects, errors or security vulnerabilities in the products of our customers or licensees could cause a delay or decrease in demand for the products into which our products are integrated, and thus for our products.

[added] In addition, recent changes in global trade policy, including tariffs and related trade actions announced by the U.S., China and other countries, have resulted in significant volatility in capital markets and increased economic uncertainty. The escalation of trade tensions and the implementation of additional trade barriers between the U.S. and its trading partners may have the effect of increasing prices and/or decreasing demand for end-user products incorporating our products (including wireless devices and connected vehicles, among others), and could result in a general economic slowdown or recession, any of which would have an adverse impact on our results of operations and financial condition. In addition, tariffs may increase the cost of certain supplies used in our business, which could result in increased operating expenses and reduced margins. Finally, continued uncertainty regarding global economic conditions and trade policy may make it harder for management to estimate the future performance of our business.

[added] • The continued and future success of our licensing programs requires us to continue to evolve our patent portfolio and to renew or renegotiate license agreements that are expiring.

[added] • Geopolitical conflicts, natural disasters, pandemics and other health crises, and other factors outside of our control, could significantly disrupt our business.

[added] • Our revenues depend on our customers' and licensees' sales of products and services based on cellular and other communications technologies, including 5G, and customer demand for our products based on these technologies.

We cannot guarantee that the actions of our suppliers will not cause disruptions in our operations that could harm our ability to meet our delivery obligations to our customers or increase our cost of sales. To the extent we are unable to obtain adequate supply to meet our delivery obligations, we may be obligated to make payments to our customers for such shortfalls. From time to time, the global semiconductor industry experiences demand for integrated circuits that exceeds the industry's capacity to meet that demand, whether globally, at certain suppliers or on certain process technology nodes. Our ability to meet increased demand for our products has been in the past and may in the future be limited due to the inability to obtain the additional manufacturing, assembly and test capacity necessary to fully meet such demand. If we are unable to fully meet customer demand, this could result in lost sales opportunities, reduced revenue growth and harm to our customer relationships, and could further incentivize our customers to use our competitors' integrated circuit products, or their own integrated circuit products, rather than our products. Our customers have from time to time overstated their expected demand requirements, possibly in order to procure additional supply, and may do so in the future. This exacerbates the foregoing issues and can negatively impact our ability to forecast and to allocate supply appropriately among our customers. The above issues may also be exacerbated with respect to our platform solutions, which already entail a great deal of complexity due to differing lead-times, technologies and suppliers for each integrated circuit product included in such solutions. [added] Additionally, our suppliers have in the past and may in the future increase their prices during periods of capacity constraints, or for other reasons, thus increasing our costs. We expect leading process technology nodes to continue to drive product cost increases from certain of our key semiconductor wafer suppliers, which may negatively impact our margins.

[added] Regulations are complex and changing (which may create uncertainty regarding compliance), are subject to varying interpretations, and their application in practice may evolve over time. In addition, and especially in developing regulatory areas (for example, AI, privacy and data protection, and sustainability-related reporting), Regulations may differ by country or by state within the United States and may be conflicting in certain cases. As a result, our efforts to comply with Regulations may fail, particularly if there is ambiguity as to how they should be applied in practice. Failure to comply with any Regulation may adversely affect our business, results of operations and cash flows. New Regulations, or evolving interpretations thereof, may cause us to incur higher costs as we revise current practices, policies or procedures; may divert management time and attention to compliance activities; and may negatively impact our ability to conduct business in certain jurisdictions.

[added] • We may engage in acquisitions and other strategic transactions or make investments, or be unable to consummate planned strategic acquisitions, which could adversely affect our results of operations or fail to enhance stockholder value.

[added] • Our industry is subject to intense competition in an environment of rapid technological change. Our success depends in part on our ability to adapt to such change and compete effectively; and such change and competition could result in decreased demand for our products and technologies or declining average selling prices for our products or those of our customers or licensees.

[added] • Claims by third parties that we infringe their intellectual property could adversely affect our business.

[added] • Our use of open source software may harm our business.

[added] • There are risks associated with our debt.

Some of these current and potential competitors may have advantages over us that include, among others: motivation by our customers in certain circumstances to use our competitors' integrated circuit products, to utilize their own internally-developed integrated circuit products and/or sell such products to others, or to utilize alternative technologies; lower cost structures or a willingness and ability to accept lower prices or lower margins for their products, particularly in China; foreign government support of other technologies, competitors or OEMs that sell devices that do not contain our products; better known brand names; ownership and control of manufacturing facilities and greater expertise in manufacturing processes; the development and sale of infrastructure equipment for wireless networks, which may enable such competitors to better optimize their integrated circuit products for performance on those networks; more extensive relationships with local distribution companies [added] and OEMs in certain geographic regions (such as China); longer operating histories in industries and applications beyond mobile handsets (such as automotive, IoT and data center), including more established and/or stronger customer, vendor, distributor or other channel relationships in such industries; and a more established presence in certain regions.

We have been and may continue to be involved in litigation and/or be required to appear in front of administrative bodies (such as the United States International Trade Commission) to defend against patent assertions against our products by third parties, including companies attempting to gain competitive advantage or leverage in licensing negotiations. We may not be successful in such proceedings, and if we are not, the range of possible outcomes is very broad and may include, for example, monetary damages or fines or other orders to pay money, royalty payments, injunctions on the sale of certain of our products (or on the sale of our customers' devices using such products) or the issuance of orders to cease certain conduct or modify our business practices. Further, a governmental body in a particular country or region may assert, and may be successful in [added] imposing, remedies with effects that extend beyond the borders of that country or region. In addition, a negative outcome in any such proceeding could severely disrupt the business of our customers, which in turn could harm our relationships with them and could result in a decline in our chipset sales or a reduction in our licensees' sales, causing corresponding declines in our chipset or licensing revenues.

Our stock price and financial results have fluctuated in the past and are likely to fluctuate in the future. Factors that may have a significant impact on the market price of our stock and our financial results include those identified above and throughout this Risk Factors section, as well as: volatility of the stock market in general and technology and semiconductor companies in particular; announcements concerning us, our suppliers, our competitors or our customers or licensees, including any announcement concerning the initiation of, or any developments in, any lawsuit or governmental investigation or proceeding against us, or any announcement concerning the implementation of tariffs or other trade restrictions affecting our products or those of our significant customers; and variations between our actual financial results or guidance and [added] expectations of securities analysts or investors, among others. In the past, securities class action litigation has been brought against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of their securities, among other reasons. We have been in the past and may in the future be the target of securities litigation, which could result in substantial uninsured costs and divert management's attention and our resources.

[added] On July 4, 2025, tax reform legislation included in the OBBB was enacted in the United States. The OBBB includes significant corporate tax reforms, including the permanent reinstatement of deducting domestic research and development expenditures as incurred beginning in fiscal 2026 (under prior law such expenditures were capitalized and amortized over five years). The legislation also modifies international tax provisions, including changes to the FDII regime. Specifically, it renames FDII as Foreign-Derived Deduction Eligible Income (FDDEI), maintains the current FDDEI effective tax rate of 13% through fiscal 2026 and adjusts the FDDEI effective tax rate to a permanent 14% rate in fiscal 2027 (compared to 16% under prior law). As a result of these changes, we expect to be subject to the corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT) beginning in fiscal 2026. CAMT imposes a 15% federal minimum tax on adjusted financial statement income, reduced by general business credits, including research and development credits. As we expect to perpetually be subject to CAMT, we no longer expect to realize substantially all of our existing federal deferred tax assets and recognized a charge of $5.7 billion to income tax expense to establish a valuation allowance in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025.

[added] • On June 9, 2025, we announced that we reached an agreement to acquire Alphawave at an implied enterprise value of approximately $2.4 billion (as of the announcement date). The purchase price will be paid in cash or, if validly elected by eligible shareholders of Alphawave, in shares of our common stock or securities exchangeable for shares of our common stock. The acquisition is subject to certain closing conditions, including receipt of regulatory approvals. Subject to the satisfaction of these conditions, this acquisition is expected to complete during the first quarter of calendar 2026.

[added] (1) In connection with our pending acquisition of Alphawave IP Group plc (Alphawave), we agreed to restrict the use of approximately $2.3 billion of cash to be held for purposes of satisfying payment of the consideration to effect the acquisition. Additional information regarding our pending acquisition of Alphawave is provided in this Annual Report in "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, Note 9. Acquisitions."

No corresponding language in the FY2025 10-K.

No corresponding language in the FY2025 10-K.

No corresponding language in the FY2025 10-K.

No corresponding language in the FY2025 10-K.

No corresponding language in the FY2025 10-K.

[added] Certain of our largest mobile handset customers (for example, Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi) develop their own integrated circuit products, which they have in the past utilized, and/or currently utilize, in certain of their devices. We expect such customers will in the future utilize their own integrated circuit products in some or all of their devices, rather than our products. In particular, we expect [added] that Apple will increasingly use its own modem products, rather than our products, in [added] its future devices, which will have a significant negative impact on our QCT revenues, results of operations and cash flows.

Although we maintain a cybersecurity program to manage cybersecurity risks, as described in the "Cybersecurity" section of this Annual Report, we cannot anticipate, detect, repel or [added] guarantee the effectiveness of our preventative measures against all cybersecurity threats, particularly because the techniques used are increasingly sophisticated and constantly evolving. For example, as AI continues to evolve, cyber-attackers could also use AI to develop malicious code and increasingly sophisticated phishing attempts. [added] Like many companies, we have encountered, and may continue to encounter, intrusions and attempts to gain unauthorized access to our IT systems [added] or other attacks and incidents, and we have had third-party service providers who have encountered intrusions and may continue to encounter intrusions. In some cases, we might be unaware of an incident or its magnitude and effects. As part of our cybersecurity program, we seek to identify and remediate vulnerabilities in our IT systems [added] and software (including third party software used in our IT systems) that could be exploited by hackers or other malicious actors. However, we may not be aware of all such vulnerabilities, and we may fail to identify and/or remediate such vulnerabilities before they are exploited.

The patent license agreements that generate a significant portion of our licensing revenues are [added] each effective for a specified term. To receive royalties after the expiration of the specified term, we will need to extend or modify [added] the applicable license agreement or enter into [added] a new license [added] agreement with the applicable [added] licensee. We might not be able to extend or modify [added] such license agreements, or enter into new license agreements, without negatively affecting the material terms and conditions of our license agreements with such licensees, and such modifications or new agreements may negatively impact our revenues. In some circumstances, we may extend, modify or enter into new license agreements as a result of arbitration or litigation, and terms imposed by arbitrators or courts may be less favorable to us than existing [added] terms and may impact the financial or other terms of license agreements not subject to the litigation or arbitration. If there is a delay in extending, modifying or entering into a new license agreement with a licensee, there would be a delay in our ability to recognize revenues related to that licensee's product sales. Further, if we are unable to reach agreement on such modifications or new agreements, it could result in patent infringement and/or other litigation with such licensees. Finally, certain of our license[added] agreements contain binding renewal provisions which provide that if the parties are unable to agree upon the terms and conditions of a new license agreement by a specified date, either party may initiate binding arbitration proceedings to establish such terms and conditions, which would become effective immediately after the expiration of the prior agreement. Nonetheless, in either event, we may not be able to recognize some or any revenues related to that licensee's product sales until such new license agreement is finalized. See also the Risk Factor below titled "Efforts by some OEMs to avoid paying fair and reasonable royalties for the use of our intellectual property may require the investment of substantial management time and financial resources and may result in legal decisions or actions by governments, courts, regulators or agencies, Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) or other industry organizations that harm our business."

Revenues were [added] $44.3 billion, an increase of [added] 14% compared to revenues of [added] $39.0 billion in fiscal [added] 2024, with net income of [added] $5.5 billion, a decrease of 45% compared to net income of [added] $10.1 billion in fiscal [added] 2024. Key items from fiscal 2025 included:

• We expect continued intense competition, including from vertical integration by certain of our customers [added] (for example, Apple and Samsung). In particular, Apple began utilizing its own modem (rather than our products) in its recently released smartphones and we expect that Apple will increasingly use its own modem products, rather than our products, in its future devices, which will have a significant negative impact on our QCT revenues, results of operations and cash flows.