Qualcomm: Making Smartphones Smart

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[00:02:41] - [First question] - Describing what a semiconductor is for lay people 

[00:03:51] - Distinguishing between chip designers and producers

[00:04:53] - Why the semiconductor industry evolved the way it did 

[00:05:57] - The history of Qualcomm from the 50s leading up to today 

[00:08:40] - Where Qualcomm fits into the world of wireless phones 

[00:12:01] - What winning the war of standards means for their economics writ large

[00:13:42] - The dynamics within the business that influenced their growth 

[00:16:00] - Qualcomm’s direct competitors as they exist today 

[00:17:20] - The relationship between Qualcomm and Apple

[00:19:42] - What’s happened over the last couple of years in the industry

[00:21:05] - The possibility of a structural tailwind in a digitally interconnected world 

[00:22:56] - Some of the competitive hostility in the semiconductor space

[00:26:58] - Unique directions Qualcomm could be taken beyond positioning 

[00:29:02] - What they can do with their abundant free cash flow 

[00:30:24] - Variables that preserve and could threaten their margins 

[00:32:58] - Where Qualcomm sits within the global struggle for chip dominance geopolitically 

[00:35:00] - Capacity constraints that could impact them directly 

[00:36:51] - Lessons for investors and operators when studying Qualcomm’s story

[00:39:50] - Unique characteristics of Qualcomm’s company culture  

[00:41:06] - Thoughts about Steve and Aman as CEOs

[00:43:08] - Where Meta, Apple, and Microsoft source  their chips