Cristiano Amon

Cristiano Amon (born ) is a Brazilian electrical engineer and businessman. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) and president of Qualcomm, a semiconductor research and development company. and 5G

Early life and education Amon was born in Brazil. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at that university in 1992. At the time, the first generation of cellular radio (1G) was in use.

Career Early career Amon started his career working for telecommunications companies during the early development of cell phone networks. His first position out of college was with NEC's Brazilian arm. He received several promotions over the years,

Amon was an important figure in the development of Qualcomm's 4G technology and the growth of Qualcomm's Snapdragon semiconductors. This was consistent with Qualcomm's history of appointing engineers to the CEO position. His predecessors were Irwin M. Jacobs (co-founder), Paul E. Jacobs and Steven Mollenkopf. A first challenge for him in his new position was to alleviate the shortage of integrated circuits for the customers of Qualcomm. Shortly after Amon was appointed to the CEO position, the COVID-19 pandemic caused supply shortages for the processors used in Qualcomm's chips. Amon secured a competitive advantage for Qualcomm by successfully negotiating for more processors than competitors were able to get from suppliers.

In 2023, Amon's total compensation from Qualcomm was $23.5 million, representing a CEO-to-median worker pay ratio of 223-to-1.

Affiliations Amon is a member of the Technology CEO Council and a member of the US-China Business Council.

He is a member of the President's Export Council. As of 2022, he is Chairman of the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Honours Amon was given an honorary doctorate from his alma mater UNICAMP (Universidade Estadual de Campinas), São Paulo.

In August 2025, Amon made Time Magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People in AI.