Qualcomm to Lay Off an Estimated 1,000 Employees

Qualcomm Inc. is set to lay off around 1,000 employees, several employees told ABC10 News on Wednesday.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, Qualcomm has given UC San Diego more than $51 million in research contracts since 2001. Apart from this, one of UCSD’s largest donors is UCSD Professor Emeritus Irwin Jacobs, Qualcomm’s founder and the namesake of the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. Qualcomm co-founder Franklin Antonio also donated more than $30 million last November for a new engineering building.

In an executive order last month, President Trump blocked Qualcomm Inc. from being purchased for $117 billion by Singapore-based telecommunications company Broadcom Ltd, reasoning that the purchase might threaten the national security of the United States.

In a March interview with the Tribune, UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla praised the Trump administration’s decision to block the deal.

“This is clearly excellent for San Diego,” he said. “And good for the country.”

Bloomberg reported that the cuts are large enough that Qualcomm will have to file a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the state of California. The company currently has around 34,000 employees.

Gabe Schneider is a Staff Writer at The Triton. You can follow him on Twitter @gabemschneider