Qualcomm is looking to leverage growth of cloud to expand reach of connectivity, processing and AI portfolios
Since CEO Cristiano Amon took the helm at Qualcomm, the company–traditionally associated with smartphone technologies–is expanding its focus in an effort to grow total addressable market to $700 billion. Company leaders have consistently described this new growth vision as all about the “connected intelligent edge.” Speaking August 16 at the JP Morgan Hardware and Semis Management Access Forum, Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala detailed this vision noting that as industries connect devices to cloud computing resources, there’s an opportunity to leverage Qualcomm’s core competencies around connectivity, processing and AI in pursuit of massive growth.
“Everything is trying to connect to the cloud,” Palkhiwala said. “It’s very simple…When I say everything, pick an industry, healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, whatever industry you like. If you believe that everything in that industry is going to connect to the cloud, it’s going to require three things.”
On the connectivity side, this runs the gamut of cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth access technologies all of which Qualcomm is “the leader” in, Palkhiwala said. Next is low-power processing for CPUs, GPUs, AI engines, security, audio, video, etc…Finally is AI itself which is required to determine at the point of data creation, the various network edges, what to do with the data.
“If you believe in this vision—everything is going to be connected to the cloud, everything on the edge needs to be smart—then that creates demand for our technology,” he said. “We are in an enviable position from a technology portfolio perspective…Because of the virtue of being in phones, we have this portfolio that applies to this industrie transition I talked about.”
Qualcomm reported $19 billion automotive design win pipeline in Q3
One of the major verticals where Qualcomm has seen rapid growth is the automotive sector. In reporting third quarter financials on July 27, executives reported a $19 billion automotive design win pipeline, up $3 billion from the previous quarter. The company has announced major deals with Volkswagen Group, BMW, Hyundai, Volvo, Renault, Honda and several others. Relevant products include the Snapdragon Ride advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) platform, Snapdragon Auto Connectivity, Snapdragon Cockpit, car-to-cloud services, C-V2X and a range of positioning solutions.
Palkhiwala tied the needs of automotive manufacturers back to the three technology areas outlined above. Qualcomm can use its connectivity technologies to link cars to cloud computing platforms, provide the wide range of processing capabilities needed inside modern vehicles, and provide the combination of AI and processing needed to power ADAS features.
“If you break it into parts,” he said, “ all automakers are going to want different suppliers for different sensors. Whether it’s camera, radar, or LiDAR, you might have different suppliers. The challenge really is who’s going to sit in the middle? Who’s the central compute chip that is going to take all the data from the sensors and make sense of it, and then allow the car to make decisions based on the that data? That’s really the role position to have—to be the central compute provider for the car.”
Click here to access Palkhiwala’s full interview at the JP Morgan event.
