MmWave 5G Meets Expectations: Qualcomm CEO

Qualcomm continues to be “positively impacted” by the growth in 5G and the “changing OEM landscape, resulting in the expansion of our addressable handset opportunity,” said CEO Cristiano Amon on a fiscal Q3 earnings call Wednesday, his first as chief executive. “We see the shifts in OEM market share create an incredible opportunity for us,” he said: “This quarter, Xiaomi is now the No. 2 OEM.”

Global millimeter-wave 5G deployments are tracking in line with expectations in the U.S., Japan, Italy and Singapore, said Amon. New mmWave deployments are “upcoming” in South Korea and Germany, plus in some countries in Western Europe and Southeast Asian and in Russia, he said.

At MWC Barcelona, “150 carriers around the world indicated they are investing” in mmWave technology, “so we’re excited about that,” said Amon. “We continue to highlight what we think could be an incredible upside opportunity to the model” in the deployment of mmWave in China, he said. Qualcomm continues to be “engaged” in an mmWave rollout in China in time for the Winter Olympics opening Feb. 4 in Beijing, he said.

Qualcomm is standing by its calendar 2021 forecast for high-single-digit percentage growth in global 3G, 4G and 5G handset shipments, including 450 million to 550 million 5G handset units, said Chief Financial Officer Akash Palkhiwala. The Snapdragon 8 Series mobile platforms “have shown significant design win momentum” in 5G, said Amon. More than half its 5G smartphone design wins are using the 8 Series, and total wins for Snapdragon 888 increased more than 20% quarter over quarter, he said.

There’s also “strong traction” with the Snapdragon 7 Series of mobile platforms, said Amon. Nearly 40 new devices were shipped or announced using Snapdragon 7 during the past quarter, he said. “We have increased confidence in growing our handset revenues.”

Qualcomm is on track to “materially improve” chip supply by the end of calendar 2021, said Amon. “We're securing incremental capacity across both leading and mature nodes and optimizing the allocation of our products across the global supply chain.”

The company also is making progress with its “multisourcing initiatives” to mitigate the chips shortages, said Amon. In fiscal Q3, the Snapdragon 778 G, the first of several products from those multisourcing initiatives, “was commercialized in record time and is now shipping in volume,” he said. Nevertheless, demand is outpacing supply “in every single” Qualcomm business, he said.

Qualcomm is “one of the few companies that, given our scale, is able to have multisourcing” in the leading nodes of wafers, said Amon. Its two “strategic” foundry partners are Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung, he said. “We're very excited and happy about Intel deciding to become a foundry and investing in leading node technology to become a foundry. I think that’s great news for the United States.” Qualcomm is “engaged” with evaluating Intel’s foundry technology, he said. “We don't yet have a specific product plan at this point, but we're pretty excited about Intel entering into this space.” A “resilient supply chain” in semiconductors “is only going to benefit our business,” he said.