Qualcomm to Maintain Diversified Wafer Foundry Strategy, Partnership with TSMC and Samsung

Qualcomm Inc. aims to maintain its multifaceted foundry strategy, according to a senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm’s Mobile Business, Computing and XR division. Speaking at a press conference on the sideline of COMPUTEX 2022 on May 24 (Tuesday), Alex Katouzian said that Qualcomm is widely expected to work with two companies in the advanced manufacturing process: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (2330-TW) (TSM-US) and Samsung.

Katouzian said that this multifaceted foundry strategy has been beneficial to Qualcomm, especially during supply shortages, allowing for a more flexible and responsive production organization. Currently, Qualcomm works primarily with two major foundries in the more advanced process nodes and has more foundry partners in the more mature nodes.

Despite the recent noise in the cellphone market, Katouzian added that 5G penetration continues to increase as the market develops related applications and services. He expects that 5G handset shipments will continue to grow.

As for its competitors’ recent move into the flagship space, Katouzian reiterated that Qualcomm has always been synonymous with the Android experience and has partnered with many brands, extending beyond cell phones to PCs, XRs and wearable devices.

For millimeter-wave (mmWave) applications, Qualcomm expects that in addition to personal devices, it will also gradually expand into the areas of private enterprise networks, multiplayer games, social media, and uploading and downloading data and photos.

In response to concerns regarding the Arm Based PC market, Katouzian emphasized that demand is not slowing down as consumers learn to take advantage of the expanding ecosystem. Qualcomm plans to focus on portability, mobility, security, connectivity and battery life while aiming to become more productive wherever and whenever it can.