Qualcomm, one of the leading companies when it comes to chipset for smartphones, is now looking to expand its footprints. The company’s new chief Cristiano Amon says that next year, Qualcomm will have a new chip for laptop makers.

He adds that longtime suppliers like Intel and AMD don’t have products that are as energy-efficient as Apple Silicon-based chips and Qualcomm CEO believes that the company can offer the best chip in the market with help from a team of chip architects who formerly worked on the Apple chip but now work at Qualcomm.

The company is also counting on revenue growth from China to power its core smartphone chip business despite political tensions. The U.S. sanctions on Huawei Technologies Co Ltd give Qualcomm an opportunity to generate a lot more revenue.

The chip giant is now looking to push 5G connectivity into laptops and is pairing modems with a powerful central processor unit. Instead of using computing core blueprints from longtime partner ARM, as it now does for smartphones, Qualcomm concluded it needed custom-designed chips if its customers were to rival new laptops from Apple.

Earlier this year, Qualcomm acquired Nuvia for $1.4 billion which was founded by Apple employees who helped design laptop chips for Apple before leaving to form the startup. Amon adds that Qualcom will start selling Nuvia-based laptop chips next year. He adds: “We needed to have the leading performance for a battery-powered device. If Arm, which we’ve had a relationship with for years, eventually develops a CPU that’s better than what we can build ourselves, then we always have the option to license from Arm.”

ARM is currently being acquired by Nvidia for $40 billion but the deal is under scrutiny over national security grounds as well as competition within the industry. Even Qualcomm has objected to the merger of these two companies. However, Nvidia has received public support from MediaTek, Marvell Technology, and Broadcom Corp for the merger deal.

RELATED: 

• Qualcomm and other chipmakers place orders for TSMC’s new 6nm process
• Qualcomm and MediaTek gain market share at the expense of Huawei HiSilicon
• Smartphones with 4nm Qualcomm SM8450 will not debut in H2 2021, says Redmi executive Wang Teng Thomas
• Samsung Exynos chip with AMD GPU outperforms iPhone 12 Pro Max in graphical test

The post Qualcomm looks to establish dominance in the laptop market with new chips appeared first on Gizmochina.

Early in January, Qualcomm had announced that Cristiano Amon would take over as the CEO of the company from June 30, 2021. Now, Amon has said that US sanctions against Huawei might help lessen the stress on semiconductor shortages.

In a webcast with Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall(via Bloomberg), he said that because of the hindrance on the chip manufacturing Huawei is facing, facilities at its partner TSMC would become free now. For the unware, TSMC had to halt Huawei’s orders in 2020 because of the tightened restrictions by the US Govt.

The Chinese Giant has henceforth not been able to make more of its HiSilicon Kirin chipsets lately. Anyway, Amon says that Although the facilities would now be available for others, difficulties in transfer of tech might delay the immediate benefits out of this.

Besides, Automakers around the world are facing Semiconductor shortages during the US-China Trade War and clamp down on Chinese tech firms. In fact, its worse in blooming  Countries like Germany which has finally sought alternatives like Taiwanese firms.

Also, the demand in chip shortages has further increased the demand on key components Smartphones, Personal Computers, Automation, Networking, etc. This demand is expected to rise prices and persist till the end of H2 2021(Second-Half).

Coming back, Aman says that Qualcomm’s demands have surged than before. In fact, the company’s revenue in Oct.-Dec. 2020(marked as Q1 2021 in Fiscal Year) grew by a whopping 62%.

Qualcomm is eyeing the semiconductor manufacturing plants of TSMC and Samsung that are being planned to set up in the USA. Although it is barred from communicating with Huawei, it is trying its best to get in touch with the recently spun-off brand HONOR.

Finally, Amon said that the semiconductor dispute between US-China would take a long time to settle before reaching a resolution.

• Huawei Smart Selection Camera Pro 64GB model goes on sale in China
• Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon X65 5G modem touts a massive 10Gbps speed
• US President Joe Biden to issue an executive order to help tackle the global chip shortage

The post Qualcomm’s upcoming CEO says US sanctions on Huawei might lessen stress on Global chip shortages appeared first on Gizmochina.

Cristiano Amon is a popular name in the mobile industry as he is the president and the face of Qualcomm. However, he is not the highest-ranking executive at the company. That position is held by Steve Mollenkopf who is the CEO.

Today, Qualcomm has announced that the current CEO will be retiring and he will be succeeded by Cristiano Amon. Mr. Mollenkopf has served as CEO since 2014 and has been with Qualcomm for 26 years.

Mr. Amon was unanimously chosen as the next CEO by the Board of Directors following Mr. Mollenkopf’s announcement of his decision to retire. His appointment will take effect on June 30, 2021, while the former CEO will remain at Qualcomm as a strategic advisor.

EDITOR’S PICK: Qualcomm releases a video detailing the Snapdragon 888 multiple benchmark results

Steve Mollenkopf’s achievements include pushing Qualcomm to the top of the mobile chipset supply chain and as a global leader in the semiconductor industry. During his reign as CEO, he also helped propel the adoption of smartphones as Qualcomm’s chipsets power millions of phones from several manufacturers. The company executive also helped with the expansion of Qualcomm’s portfolio to include IoT, RF Front End, and Automotive chips.

Qualcomm was founded in 1985 and it started as a contractor for government and research products. In the 90s, it restructured its business and decided to focus on the patents and chipset businesses. By the year 2000, the company which had 8 employees in 1986 and grown to 6300 employees.

In 2016, Qualcomm tried to acquire NXP Semiconductors and while that was going on, Broadcom, tried to forcefully acquire Qualcomm but an executive order from President Trump prevented it. Qualcomm itself rejected the acquisition. Qualcomm also had to abandon its goal of acquiring NXP due to the China-US trade war.

UP NEXT: Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 480 5G chipset will bring even more affordable 5G phones

The post Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon chosen as next CEO appeared first on Gizmochina.