Commitments and Contingencies

12 Months Ended

Sep. 28, 2025

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Legal and Regulatory Proceedings.

ParkerVision, Inc. v. QUALCOMM Incorporated: On May 1, 2014, ParkerVision, Inc. (ParkerVision) filed a complaint against us in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida alleging that certain of our products infringed seven ParkerVision patents. ParkerVision subsequently reduced the number of patents asserted to three. The asserted patents are now expired, and injunctive relief is no longer available. ParkerVision continues to seek damages related to the sale of many of our radio frequency (RF) products sold between 2008 and 2018. On March 23, 2022, the district court entered judgment in our favor on all claims and closed the case. ParkerVision appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit), and on September 6, 2024, the Federal Circuit reversed the judgment of the district court, citing certain substantive and procedural issues, and remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings. Following a claim construction ruling by the district court, the parties agreed to a stipulated judgment of non-infringement with respect to certain of ParkerVision’s claims (Receiver Claims). On October 2, 2025, the court entered a final judgment in our favor with respect to the Receiver Claims and severed and stayed ParkerVision’s remaining claims (Transmitter Claims), pending appeal of the court’s claim construction ruling and resulting determination of non-infringement of the Receiver Claims. On October 6, 2025, ParkerVision filed a notice of appeal to the Federal Circuit. We have moved to dismiss ParkerVision’s appeal as procedurally improper. We intend to continue to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.

Arm Ltd. v. QUALCOMM Incorporated: On August 31, 2022, Arm Ltd. (Arm) filed a complaint against us in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. Our subsidiaries Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and NuVia, Inc. (Nuvia) are also named in the complaint. The complaint alleges that following our acquisition of Nuvia, we and Nuvia breached Nuvia’s Architecture License Agreement with Arm (the Nuvia ALA) by failing to comply with the termination obligations under the Nuvia ALA. Arm is seeking specific performance, including that we cease all use of and destroy any technology that was developed under the Nuvia ALA, including processor core technology (which Arm alleges includes our custom Qualcomm Oryon CPU cores). On September 30, 2022, we filed our Answer and Counterclaim in response to Arm’s complaint denying Arm’s claims. Our counterclaim seeks a declaratory judgment that we did not breach the Nuvia ALA or the Technology License Agreement between Nuvia and Arm, and that, following the acquisition of Nuvia, our architected cores (including all further developments, iterations or instantiations of the technology we acquired from Nuvia) and System-on-Chip (SoC) products incorporating such cores are fully licensed under our existing Architecture License Agreement with Arm (the Qualcomm ALA) and Technology License Agreement with Arm (the Qualcomm TLA). A trial was held beginning on December 16, 2024, and on December 20, 2024, the jury found that (i) Qualcomm did not breach the Nuvia ALA and (ii) Qualcomm CPUs that include designs acquired in the Nuvia acquisition are licensed under the Qualcomm ALA. The jury was unable to reach a verdict with respect to Arm’s claim as to whether Nuvia breached the Nuvia ALA. The parties filed various post-trial motions, including motions for judgment as a matter of law. On September 30, 2025, the court entered a final judgment upholding the jury’s verdict in favor of Qualcomm, granting judgment to Nuvia, and dismissing Arm’s remaining claims. On October 1, 2025, Arm filed a notice of appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. We intend to continue to vigorously defend ourselves against Arm’s claims in this matter.

On April 18, 2024, we filed a separate complaint (captioned QUALCOMM Incorporated v. Arm Ltd.) against Arm in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The complaint alleges that Arm has breached the Qualcomm ALA by failing to provide certain deliverables that Arm is obligated to provide. The complaint seeks an order that Arm comply with its contractual obligations, damages, and additional relief. On December 16, 2024, we filed a First Amended Complaint alleging additional causes of action based on Arm improperly seeking to terminate the Qualcomm ALA and improperly publicizing that it was seeking to terminate the Qualcomm ALA. On June 3, 2025, we filed a Second Amended Complaint to add a claim that Arm has breached the Qualcomm TLA by failing to provide license offers at commercially reasonable prices and terms. Arm has moved to dismiss our amended complaint. Trial is scheduled to begin on March 9, 2026.

On October 22, 2024, Arm provided us with a notice alleging that we have breached the Qualcomm ALA by marketing products that contain CPUs that Arm alleges use designs, technology and code created by Nuvia employees prior to our acquisition of Nuvia; by seeking support and verification from Arm for additional products that use such alleged designs, technology and code; and by suing Arm for breach of the Qualcomm ALA. Arm’s notice asserts that it will have the right to terminate the Qualcomm ALA if such alleged breaches are not cured within 60 days of such notice. We disagree with Arm’s allegations, including that we are, or have been, in breach of the Qualcomm ALA. On January 8, 2025, Arm notified us that it was withdrawing its October 22, 2024 notice of breach and indicated that it has no current plan to terminate the Qualcomm ALA, while reserving its rights pending the outcome of the ongoing litigation.

Contingent Losses and Other Considerations: Litigation and investigations are inherently uncertain, and we face difficulties in evaluating or estimating likely outcomes or ranges of possible loss, particularly in antitrust and trade regulation investigations. We have not recorded any accrual at September 28, 2025 for contingent losses associated with the matters described above based on our belief that losses, while reasonably possible, are not probable. Further, any possible amount or range of loss cannot be reasonably estimated at this time. The unfavorable resolution of one or more of these matters could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows. We are engaged in numerous other legal actions not described above (including matters arising in the ordinary course of our business, such as

those relating to employment matters or the initiation or defense of proceedings relating to intellectual property rights, among others) and, while there can be no assurance, we believe that the ultimate outcome of these other legal actions will not have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.

Indemnifications. We generally do not indemnify our customers, licensees and suppliers for losses sustained from infringement of third-party intellectual property rights. However, we are contingently liable under certain agreements to defend and/or indemnify certain customers, licensees, and suppliers against certain types of liability and/or damages arising from the infringement of third-party intellectual property rights and to indemnify certain companies that purchased businesses we previously consolidated against certain contingent losses. Our obligations under these agreements may be limited in terms of time and/or amounts, and in some instances, we may have recourse against third parties for certain payments made by us. Claims and reimbursements under indemnification arrangements have not been material to our consolidated financial statements. We have not recorded accruals for certain claims under indemnification arrangements based on our belief that additional liabilities, while possible, are not probable. Further, any possible range of loss cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.

Purchase Obligations. We have agreements with suppliers and other parties to purchase inventory, other goods and services and long-lived assets. Such agreements include multi-year capacity purchase commitments with certain suppliers of our integrated circuit products. Total advance payments related to multi-year capacity purchase commitments recorded on the consolidated balance sheets at September 28, 2025 and September 29, 2024 were $1.9 billion and $3.0 billion, respectively, of which $1.5 billion and $765 million were recorded in other current assets, respectively, and $357 million and $2.2 billion were recorded in other assets, respectively. Integrated circuit product inventory obligations represent purchase commitments (including those under multi-year capacity purchase commitments to the extent such minimum amounts are both fixed and determinable) for raw materials, semiconductor die, finished goods and manufacturing services, such as wafer bump, probe, assembly and final test. Under our manufacturing relationships with our foundry suppliers and assembly and test service providers, cancellation of outstanding purchase commitments is generally allowed but would require payment of costs incurred through the date of cancellation. Also, in some cases, we may be subject to incremental fees and/or the loss of amounts paid in advance due to capacity underutilization and/or the failure to meet minimum purchase volumes under multi-year capacity purchase commitments. Obligations under our purchase agreements, which primarily relate to integrated circuit product inventory obligations, at September 28, 2025 totaled $15.1 billion of which, $10.5 billion is expected to be paid in the next 12 months.

Operating Leases. We lease certain of our land, facilities and equipment under operating leases, with terms ranging from less than one year to 20 years, some of which include options to extend for up to 20 years. At September 28, 2025 and September 29, 2024, the weighted-average remaining lease term for operating leases was eight years and nine years, respectively. Operating lease expense was $184 million for both fiscal 2025 and 2024 and $204 million for fiscal 2023. At September 28, 2025, other assets included $735 million of operating lease assets, with corresponding lease liabilities of $102 million recorded in other current liabilities and $730 million recorded in other liabilities. At September 29, 2024, other assets included $719 million of operating lease assets, with corresponding lease liabilities of $98 million recorded in other current liabilities and $708 million recorded in other liabilities.

At September 28, 2025, future lease payments under our operating leases were as follows (in millions):


2026	$	142
2027	137
2028	128
2029	120
2030	107
Thereafter	461
Total future lease payments	1,095
Imputed interest	(263)
Total lease liability balance	$	832