As diversification strategy plays out, Qualcomm tells shareholders about momentum in automotive, edge networking, IoT
“We’re very excited about the future of Qualcomm,” CEO Critiano Amon said earlier this month at the company’s annual shareholders meeting. “And we continue to believe that the best of Qualcomm is yet to come.”
Since Amon took the top job at Qualcomm, the company has brought front and center its play to leverage a “one technology roadmap” to power the “connected intelligent edge” and grow total addressable market to $700 billion, from $100 billion, by the end of this decade. This diversification push hinges on taking technologies developed for the handset business and applying them to growth areas, including automotive, IoT, edge networking, extended reality (XR), and industrial.
Big picture, Amon said the company’s QCT division is seeing the revenue mix change with around 27% coming from non-handset segments. He also pointed out strong year-over-year growth in areas targeted for expansion.
The company, he said, is “changing from a communications company to a connected processor and intelligence company for the intelligent edge…Our role is to bring data processing and intelligent to the edge, enabling cloud/edge convergence. We’re quickly moving to a world where everything is connected to the cloud 100% of the time. There are digital twins of everything. And Qualcomm will play a role in connecting and mak[ing] those devices intelligent outside the data center. That’s the opportunity for us.”
Distilling the technology strategy, Amon called out wireless connectivity, high-performance/low-power computing and artificial intelligence (AI) as applicable “to every industry. We can scale for a phone, all the way to an autonomous car, and to a number of different industrial applications.” Qualcomm counts more than 16,000 industrial IoT customers, he said.
Connecting the industrial IoT, mmWave 5G FWA in India
Speaking directly to the opportunity in industrial sectors, Amon said, “As many industries are transforming themselves with technology, it creates an opportunity for Qualcomm…As companies are looking to make commitments to reduce energy consumption, technologies provided by Qualcomm that provide high performance, efficient computing, becomes essential. And we’re very excited about the opportunity of growing in all of those markets with Qualcomm innovation.”
With regard to edge networking, Amon noted growing traction around cellular-backed home internet services. He cited growth in T-Mobile US’s 5G-based home internet offering, and also referenced momentum in India for using mmWave spectrum to connect households in India. “That’s a significant opportunity for Qualcomm,” he said. “We’re excited about what’s happening in India. There is a 5G auction in India and there is an ambitious plan for some of the operators to connect 100 million households using 5G millimeter wave technology over a number of years. It’s easy to see how that can become a significant opportunity for the company.”
Click here to view the a video recording of Qualcomm’s shareholders meeting.
