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Scouting report · QCOM

Cristiano R. Amon

  • President & Chief Executive Officer; director, QCOM since 2021-06src

Qualcomm engineer since 1995; ran the chip unit, CEO since June 2021

—thin record

Not ranked yet

Scouting sheet

as of 24 Sep 2026
Delivers guidance—1 beat · 0 met · 1 missed · 1 withdrawn — fewer than 4, not scored
Answers the question980 dodges in 53 answers on 8 calls
Capital allocation100company five-year record: compounds
Pay design6061% performance-conditioned · operating income, revenue, strategic, relative tsr, eps, time only · 91.8% for · 0.54% of net income
Skin in the game54stake worth $43.1m, 1× last year's pay
Age
55src
In the role
5 yr
Promises scored
3
Hit rate
33%
Dodges / 100 answers
0.0
Airtime on calls
45%
Every promise, oldest firstBWX

What to weigh

Watch 5

  • Per the dossier's S8 row 13 he set the Samsung Galaxy S26 share at about 75%, reaffirmed it, then restated it as greater than 70% one quarter before the result (about 70%) and presented it as unchanged. The dossier scores this withdrawnsrc
  • Co-owner of the Apple 20%-share assumption for the 2026 launch (dossier S8 row 14, scored missed). It was reaffirmed three times over 21 months, then cut in July 2026 before the launchsrc
  • Sold 180,000 shares (about $30.4m) in the 12 months to 2026-09-24, all under Rule 10b5-1 plans. 150,000 of them were sold on 2025-10-01 from the family trust; he held 217,483 shares on 2025-12-15src
  • FY2025 perquisites included $498,491 for personal use of the corporate aircraft and $155,668 for security on personal travel, both under a security-driven travel policysrc
  • CEO pay ratio 292:1 on $29.7m of FY2025 total pay (median employee $101,639); total pay rose from $23.5m in FY2023src

In their favour 2

  • About 60% of long-term equity is PSUs: 3-year relative TSR against the NASDAQ-100 (55th percentile for target, payout capped at target if absolute TSR is negative) and 3-year average adjusted EPS. The FY2023-25 PSUs paid 66% of target on 44th-percentile TSRsrc
  • Meets the 10x-salary ownership guideline, and company policy bars hedging and pledgingsrc

Career

  1. 2021-06 – now
    Qualcommsrc
    President & Chief Executive Officer; director
  2. 2021-01 – 2021-06
    Qualcommsrc
    President & CEO-elect
  3. 2018-01 – 2021-01
    Qualcommsrc
    President
  4. 2015-11 – 2018-01
    Qualcomm Technologies (QTI)src
    EVP, QTI and President, QCT (the chip business)
  5. 2012-10 – 2015-11
    Qualcomm Technologies (QTI)src
    EVP, QTI and Co-President, QCT
  6. 2012-06 – 2012-10
    Qualcommsrc
    SVP and Co-President, QCT
  7. 2007-10 – 2012-06
    Qualcommsrc
    SVP, QCT Product Management (product roadmap incl. Snapdragon)
  8. 1995 – 2007
    Qualcommsrc
    Joined as an engineer; several other technical and leadership positions
    The proxy's CD&A counts 28 years of service against this 1995 start, so about two years in the period were spent outside the company; no filing dates them

Not located: 1995-2007 is described only as 'technical and leadership positions'. The proxy counts 28 years of service against a 1995 start; the time outside Qualcomm is undated in any filing. A search summary names NEC (Brazil, then Tokyo), Ericsson, Velocom and CTO of the Brazilian operator Vésper, without dates, so none of these is entered as a career line

Achievements

  • Rose from engineer (joined 1995) to President in January 2018 and CEO in June 2021, a whole career inside Qualcomm apart from about two undated yearssrc
  • Ran the product roadmap including Snapdragon as SVP QCT Product Management 2007-2012, then co-led and led QCT, Qualcomm's chip business, 2012-2018src
  • Promised the Alphawave acquisition would close in calendar Q1 2026; per the dossier's S8 row 11 it closed 2025-12-18, earlysrc
  • Director of Adobe Inc. since October 2023src
  • Re-elected in March 2026 with 747.4m votes for and 3.2m withheld; say-on-pay passed at 91.8% of votes cast for and againstsrc

Education

  • Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil, BS Electrical Engineering (1992)src

Background

  • Family Item 404: his brother is employed by Qualcomm Technologies as a Vice President, Program Management; the HR and Compensation Committee reviewed and approved the arrangement, and the proxy says he has no material beneficial interest in the brother's paysrc
  • Boards Director of Adobe Inc. since October 2023; the only outside public board the proxy listssrc
  • Other Born in Campinas, Brazil and educated at UNICAMP, where he also holds an honorary doctorate. His career began at NEC's Brazilian unit before Qualcomm, per the search summarysrc
  • Other No employment contract: Qualcomm executives are at will, have no single-trigger change-in-control benefits and no unique tax gross-upssrc
  • Other The only management director. The board has an independent Chair (Mark McLaughlin) and every other director is independentsrc

The promise ledger

3 scored · 0 open
ResultWhat was promisedWhere it is scoredHow
B BeatAlphawave close: "The acquisition is expected to close during the first calendar quarter of 2026"QCOM row 11said it
W WithdrawnSamsung Galaxy S26 share ~75%: "Our assumption for any new Galaxy is always going to be 75%. That's our assumption for Galaxy S26."QCOM row 13said it
X MissedApple share at the fall-2026 launch ~20%, FY27 Apple product revenue ~$2bn: "Our planning assumption has been that the share will ramp down to 20% for the '26 launch, and the agreement ends after that"QCOM row 14said it, with a colleague

Questions dodged

0.0 per 100 answers

None logged on the calls reviewed.

Calls reviewed

  • FY2024-Q4.roic.json — 5 answers, 37% of the words
  • FY2025-Q1.roic.json — 4 answers, 40% of the words
  • FY2025-Q2.roic.json — 8 answers, 50% of the words
  • FY2025-Q3.roic.json — 6 answers, 48% of the words
  • FY2025-Q4.roic.json — 5 answers, 39% of the words
  • FY2026-Q1.roic.json — 8 answers, 48% of the words
  • FY2026-Q2.roic.json — 11 answers, 53% of the words
  • FY2026-Q3.roic.json — 6 answers, 41% of the words

Sources

11
  1. Filing QUALCOMM DEF 14A for the 2026 annual meeting (accession 0001104659-26-005781) · 2026-01-22
  2. Filing QUALCOMM 10-K for FY ended 2025-09-28 (0000804328-25-000085), executive officers and signatures · 2025-11-05
  3. Filing QUALCOMM 8-K Item 5.07, 2026 annual meeting results (0000804328-26-000041) · 2026-03-19
  4. Filing SEC XBRL companyconcept us-gaap/NetIncomeLoss, CIK 804328 (FY2025 10-K, 0000804328-25-000085) · 2025-11-05
  5. Filing Form 4, Cristiano R. Amon (reporting CIK 1559665), sales of 2025-10-01 under a 10b5-1 plan (0000804328-25-000061) · 2025-10-03
  6. Filing Form 4, Cristiano R. Amon, sale of 2026-05-04 (0000804328-26-000064) · 2026-05-04
  7. Filing Form 4, Cristiano R. Amon, sale of 2026-05-05 (0000804328-26-000065) · 2026-05-06
  8. Filing Form 4, Cristiano R. Amon, sale of 2026-09-21 (0000804328-26-000095) · 2026-09-23
  9. Call transcript QCOM Q3 FY2025 earnings call (2025-07-30), ROIC.ai
  10. Call transcript QCOM Q2 FY2026 earnings call (2026-04-29), ROIC.ai
  11. Web search result WebSearch: Cristiano Amon biography (Wikipedia summary: born Campinas, BS EE UNICAMP 1992, began at NEC's Brazilian unit; CTO of Vésper; roles at NEC, Ericsson, Velocom) · 2026-09-24