By finding growth opportunities in the smartphone and auto industries, the world’s largest semiconductor producer Qualcomm readies for a “revolution” of their products – which are more than likely to fall into your hands in the coming years.
“We realized the technology we built for smartphones could cause a revolution in cars,” Qualcomm, Inc. CEO Cristiano Amon said in an exclusive interview on “The Claman Countdown” Tuesday. “How you think about the car being intelligent, being connected and not use [sic] a lot of electricity because you cannot put a server on the trunk of a car, but you need that type of computational power. That creates a whole new growth engine for us in Alto, and of course, IoT [Internet of Things] is going to be the future of Qualcomm.”
The chip industry has pivoted hard from a clamor for higher output to cost-cutting as it adjusts to a slump for semiconductors that has infected almost all parts of its business.
While tech company stocks like Intel, Invidia and Advanced Micro Devices were all down by at least 50% last year amid COVID-19 chip production disruptions, Qualcomm suffered the smallest loss of the bunch by exploring outside its typical wheelhouse.
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At Qualcomm’s headquarters in San Diego, California, its CEO showed host Liz Claman – for the first time publicly – its concept electric car and latest handset chip called the “Digital Chassis.”
“When you look at what this concept car is doing, it’s showing what’s possible for the future software-defined vehicles,” Amon said. “As cars get connected to the cloud and you have now those massive screens in the car, a lot of things change. You have new services, the car learns about you, you can buy upgrades for your car, you can run your office, it can be your conference room. And I think that’s we’re going to be showing in this car.”
According to the CEO, the new chip technology moves innovators one step closer to a fully autonomous vehicle by running the car’s infotainment, cockpit, engine and safety functions. Currently, 250 million electric vehicles across various brands operate with a Qualcomm semiconductor.
“Just by 2030, we expect that to increase by ten [times] to 2.5 billion. So it’s incredible to see Qualcomm becoming one of the leading automotive technology providers,” Amon added.
Amon also spoke on the state of supply and demand for smartphone chips, and the company’s recent short-term decision to curtail spending and pause hiring due to China’s COVID-19 closures and recessionary concerns.
“Mostly, it has been impacting our handset business in the short term. Inflation had, in some markets, impacted the ability of people to buy new phones,” Amon said. “There are a couple of things that could be silver linings because there was not just the macro. We also had the China lockdown situation, which now appears to be resolved. So the China market, it’s a big market, and we expect that to resume growth. And we are going to take a couple quarters, as we said, for the inventory to clear up before we get normal demand.”
Amon also confirmed a multi-year agreement with Samsung to completely build and produce its next Galaxy series smartphone and didn’t rule out future deals with Apple.
“People are buying their next smartphone, [which] is always a better smartphone. We signed a multi-year agreement with Samsung, which you’re going to see now with the beginning of the new Galaxy, it’s 100% Qualcomm and we’re excited about the next change in 5G technology, which is coming,” Amon said.
“We did say during our earnings call that we expect to be in the iPhone launching in 2023. Beyond that, we’re not making any predictions,” the CEO added. “At the end of the day, we’re going to continue to be the company setting the pace of innovation in 5G connectivity and technology. And we are always going to be available for Apple if they choose to use our modem.”
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The third generation of Qualcomm’s fastest mobile processor – Snapdragon – is “coming along,” according to Amon, who touted the technology as one of the “best suppliers” for leading brands such as Samsung and Apple.
“We usually have to design those chips two to three years before they come to market,” he explained. “So we’re already tracking a lot of progress of Gen Three, but Gen Two is great. It actually set up the benchmark for performance on device intelligence and connectivity in the cellular industry.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Asa Fitch contributed to this report.