Former Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs is starting a new company with two ex-Qualcomm executives that will focus on next-generation wireless technology.

The start-up engineering company, called XCOM, will invest and develop technologies to tackle important 5G problems, such as low latency and greater reliability. Jacobs is the new company's CEO and chairman and is joined by Derek Aberle, Qualcomm's former president who left the company last year, and Matthew Grob, who served as Qualcomm's chief technology officer from 2011 to 2017.

The new company doesn't interrupt Jacobs' plans to take Qualcomm private. Jacobs is working with Aberle to raise billions of dollars for a theoretical Qualcomm acquisition. Those efforts, while ongoing, have temporarily slowed as Qualcomm waits to see if it will get Chinese approval to acquire NXP.

"It's unclear where the take private plan will go or how long that will take," said Aberle in an interview. "But this is not an either/or. We are pursuing this new company and we have high expectations and confidence in the take-private plan."

Aberle said he didn't have anything to report on money raised to take Qualcomm private.