Qualcomm incentivizes 5G development with a new multi-million-dollar fund

Qualcomm is set to make a sizeable investment in 5G's future. (Source: RTE)

Qualcomm's Venture division has announced the implementation of the 5G Ecosystem Fund, a source of investment worth up to US$200 million. As the name suggests, it will help support start-ups involved in new, innovative and potentially lucrative applications of the new mobile-data standard. The company also intends the new fund to help get 5G in devices besides smartphones.

by Deirdre O Donnell, 2019/10/24

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Qualcomm's in-house venture-capital group has unveiled its plan to institute a 5G Ecosystem Fund. This, as it says on the tin, is a source of investment for companies that aim to get into this emerging market in ways heretofore un-envisioned or unexploited. The silicon giant projects that this program will enhance the adoption and use of the new radio bands.

Qualcomm projects that these goals will lead to substantial returns in the near future. Currently, it estimates that 5G will lead to an "economic benefit" of as much as US$13.2 trillion by 2035. Therefore, it clearly aims to gain a stake in the business in question early on through its new Venture Fund, as it did for on-device AI in 2018.

This manufacturer also has other interests in 5G: it has already released its first- and second-generation modems compatible with the emerging mobile-data standard, as well as upcoming series of entire systems on chips (SoCs) that may bring it into the wider smartphone market in the near future.

However, the new Ecosystem Fund is pitched more at initiatives that use the new technology in a greater range of devices and applications, which are admittedly few and far between at present.