Qualcomm Stockholders Back Board, Equity Plan; CEO Amon Highlights AI, Robotics and Data Center Push

Qualcomm logo Stockholders approved all board-recommended items including the election of 11 directors, ratification of PwC as auditor, approval of the amended 2023 long-term incentive plan with a 24 million share increase in reserves, while both stockholder proposals (special meetings and China reporting) were not approved. CEO Cristiano Amon said Qualcomm is diversifying beyond handsets…


Qualcomm Stockholders Back Board, Equity Plan; CEO Amon Highlights AI, Robotics and Data Center Push
Qualcomm Stockholders Back Board, Equity Plan; CEO Amon Highlights AI, Robotics and Data Center Push
Qualcomm logo
Qualcomm logo
  • Stockholders approved all board-recommended items including the election of 11 directors, ratification of PwC as auditor, approval of the amended 2023 long-term incentive plan with a 24 million share increase in reserves, while both stockholder proposals (special meetings and China reporting) were not approved.

  • CEO Cristiano Amon said Qualcomm is diversifying beyond handsets into personal AI, wearables, PCs, automotive, edge networking and industrial IoT, and has formally entered advanced robotics with Dragonwing IQ 10 series support for AMRs and humanoids.

  • Qualcomm is accelerating a push into the data center with NPU-based AI inference accelerators and custom SoCs (after completing the Alphawave Semi acquisition), expects data center revenue to become financially material in fiscal 2027, and reiterated strong capital returns including returning ~100% of free cash flow and a $0.03 dividend increase.

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Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) held its 2026 annual meeting of stockholders on Thursday, with Chair Mark McLaughlin opening the session by introducing board nominees and members of the executive team, including President and CEO Cristiano Amon and CFO/COO Akash Palkhiwala. McLaughlin also recognized two departing directors: Neil Smit, who is retiring after nearly eight years on the board, and Chris Young, who is leaving to focus on his role as CEO of Vertex Incorporated.

General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Ann Chaplin reviewed procedural matters, including confirmation that a quorum was present and that Peter Descovich had been appointed inspector of election. Stockholders considered seven proposals, and management reported preliminary results showing all board-recommended items were approved while the two stockholder proposals were not.

  • Director elections: Stockholders elected all 11 director nominees: Sylvia Acevedo, Cristiano Amon, Mark Fields, Jeff Henderson, Zico Kolter, Ann Livermore, Mark McLaughlin, Jamie Miller, Marie Myers, Irene Rosenfeld, and Jean-Pascal Tricoire.

  • Auditor ratification: Stockholders ratified PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as independent public accountants for the fiscal year ending September 27, 2026.

  • Executive compensation: Stockholders approved the non-binding advisory โ€œsay-on-payโ€ proposal.

  • Say-on-pay frequency: Stockholders supported holding future say-on-pay votes on an annual basis.

  • Equity plan: Stockholders approved the amended and restated 2023 long-term incentive plan, including an increase in share reserves by 24 million shares.

  • Stockholder proposals: Both stockholder proposals were not approved.

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Chaplin said final voting results would be reported within four business days in a Form 8-K filing with the SEC and published on the companyโ€™s website.

In Proposal Six, stockholder proponent John Chevedden asked the company to amend governing documents to allow holders of a combined 10% of outstanding common stock to call a special stockholder meeting. Chevedden argued Qualcommโ€™s existing provisionsโ€”citing a threshold โ€œup to 25%โ€ and a requirement that shares be held for a โ€œfull continuous yearโ€ to participateโ€”functioned as โ€œpoison pillsโ€ that effectively prevent stockholders from calling special meetings.

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Proposal Seven was presented via a prerecorded statement by Todd Russ, Chairman of the Board of Investors for the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust. Russ requested reporting on how the company manages โ€œChina risk,โ€ describing China as a โ€œmassive portion of revenueโ€ and referencing concerns raised in meetings with the company about a lack of tracking for China-specific operating costs, assets, or supply chain specifics. Russ characterized the proposal as โ€œmodest, reasonable, and non-political,โ€ and said it sought transparency rather than a decoupling from China.

In a business update, Amon said Qualcommโ€™s strategy is built on anticipating change, investing early in new technologies, and executing with discipline. He described the company as a โ€œconnected computing leaderโ€ with capabilities spanning high-performance, low-power computing, advanced connectivity, and AI processing. Amon said Qualcommโ€™s technologies scale from โ€œless than 2 milliwattsโ€ in consumer electronics to โ€œ2,000 wattsโ€ in next-generation data centers.

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Amon said the company is โ€œsuccessfully expanding beyond handsetsโ€ into personal AI and wearables, PCs, automotive, edge networking, and industrial IoT, and is โ€œextending this approach into advanced robotics and the data center.โ€

In handsets, Amon said Snapdragon platforms โ€œcontinue to set the pace of mobile innovation,โ€ highlighting the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 as featuring โ€œthe fastest mobile CPU ever,โ€ along with enhanced NPU and GPU capabilities. He said the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 support premium smartphones and are seeing โ€œstrong global adoption across OEM flagship designs.โ€

He also emphasized โ€œpersonal AIโ€ devices such as smart glasses and other wearables, describing โ€œagentic experiencesโ€ and continuous sensing requirements as aligned with Qualcommโ€™s strengths in performance and power efficiency. Amon said the company is working with โ€œseven of the nine largest cloud companies globally,โ€ and that Snapdragon is the platform of choice with โ€œmore than 40 devices in production or development,โ€ with smart glasses likely to become the largest category.

In PCs, Amon pointed to Snapdragon X Series momentum and said Qualcomm expects โ€œapproximately 150 Snapdragon-powered laptop designs to be commercialized through 2026.โ€ In automotive, he said Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions have broad adoption across major OEMs and that the companyโ€™s digital cockpit platform is deployed in โ€œ75 million cars globally,โ€ including top-selling vehicles from General Motors, Toyota, and Mercedes. He also cited the launch of Snapdragon Ride Pilot, described as Qualcommโ€™s first full L2+ automated driving solution in its advanced self-driving software stack co-developed with BMW.

In edge networking, Amon cited demand for Wi-Fi 7 gateway platforms and adoption of 5G fixed wireless access solutions, and said Qualcomm is investing in Wi-Fi 8, with consumer devices expected โ€œas early as summer 2026.โ€ He highlighted Xiaomiโ€™s launch of an AI gateway based on the Qualcomm Dragonwing and Pro A7 platform. In industrial and embedded IoT, he said Qualcomm expanded its offerings and cited a range of customer examples using industrial-grade Dragonwing platforms.

Amon also said the company formally announced entry into advanced robotics, describing Dragonwing IQ 10 series support spanning โ€œadvanced AMRs to humanoids.โ€ He said robotics underscores the importance of on-device AI processing, low latency sensor fusion, and power efficiency.

In the data center, Amon said Qualcomm is focusing on NPU-based AI inference accelerator cards and servers and custom SoCs, emphasizing inference workloads and an โ€œinnovative memory architectureโ€ that provides โ€œmore than ten times higher effective memory bandwidthโ€ with lower power consumption. He also said the company completed the acquisition of Alphawave Semi and is โ€œencouraged by early customer tractionโ€ with hyperscalers, cloud service providers, and sovereign AI projects.

During the Q&A, Amon reiterated Qualcommโ€™s target of $22 billion of combined QCT, automotive, and IoT revenues by fiscal 2029. On data center, he said it is โ€œnot includedโ€ in that $22 billion and that Qualcomm expects the business to start becoming โ€œfinancially material in fiscal 2027,โ€ calling it a โ€œmulti-billion opportunity.โ€

On capital returns, management said Qualcomm returned approximately โ€œ100% of our free cash flowโ€ in fiscal 2025 and is โ€œon track to do that in fiscal 2026,โ€ using a combination of dividends and buybacks. The company also said it announced a $0.03 dividend increase, and reiterated guidance that annual dividend increases are expected to be in the โ€œlow single-digit range.โ€

Addressing 6G, Amon said โ€œ6G is definitely comingโ€ and that Qualcomm expects to lead it as it has prior wireless generations. He described 6G as enabling significant uplink speed increases for future AI-driven devices and said the network itself will become โ€œan AI network,โ€ including sensing capabilities and โ€œthe abilities to create a digital twin of everything,โ€ which he framed as an opportunity spanning cellular technologies as well as AI compute and data center.

In closing remarks, Amon said Qualcomm is evolving from a company focused on connectivity and mobile into โ€œa connected computing company for the age of intelligence,โ€ and said the company will continue executing its strategy.

Qualcomm Incorporated is a global semiconductor and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in San Diego, California. Founded in 1985, the company is known for its development of wireless technologies and for playing a central role in the evolution of digital cellular standards, including CDMA and subsequent generations of mobile standards. Qualcommโ€™s business combines the design and sale of semiconductor products with a patent licensing program for wireless technologies and related intellectual property.

The companyโ€™s product portfolio includes system-on-chip (SoC) platforms marketed under the Snapdragon brand, cellular modem and RF front-end components, connectivity solutions for Wiโ€‘Fi and Bluetooth, and processors and platforms aimed at automotive, IoT, networking and edge-computing applications.

The article “Qualcomm Stockholders Back Board, Equity Plan; CEO Amon Highlights AI, Robotics and Data Center Push” was originally published by MarketBeat.

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