On Tuesday September 5, 2023, U.S. semiconductor company Qualcomm announced it would supply chips to collaborate with luxury automakers Mercedes and BMW to offer a range of features for vehicles from infotainment systems to advanced driver-assistance systems. Their cooperation is based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Digital Chassis Solution that includes high-performance compute and AI engines, screens and cameras. New BMW and Mercedes vehicles can now utilize the Snapdragon automotive digital cockpit platform and the Snapdragon automotive connectivity platform. Qualcomm will supply BMW with chips that will help power voice commands inside the car and will supply chips for the next version of the Mercedes E class models, which will be available in the U.S. in 2024. 

     According to Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm CEO, who was interviewed at the Munich auto show, the company expects to have $4 billion in revenue from the automotive sector by 2026, rising to $9 billion by 2030. In 2022, Qualcomm’s design-win "pipeline" in the automotive business was $30 billion. Mr. Amon also said "One of the things we're very focused on the company is to find new areas for growth... automotive is one of those areas."

      According to Brand Value (China) Network, Qualcomm long reigned as the world’s biggest fabless chip company, pioneering the cellular age and making the modems inside nearly every smartphone today. However, smartphone market has slumped since 2022. For example, in the year of 2023, Qualcomm reported a second-quarter revenue decline of 23% to $8.442 billion. The mobile chip business saw a 25% drop in revenue, while the automotive sector experienced a 13% decrease. Additionally, Qualcomm’s competitor - Nvidia’s ChatGPT and AI chips have made its revenue soaring past Qualcomm. Apple is also working on its own modems for iPhones after 2024. Therefore, Qualcomm is diversifying its revenue stream to sell chips to automakers. 

   Qualcomm was founded in 1985 by Irwin Jacobs and six other co-founders. Qualcomm means "Quality Communications". It started as a contract research and development center funded by selling a two-way mobile digital satellite communications system called Omnitracs. In 1988, Qualcomm merged with Ominet and raised $3.5 million in funding in order to produce the Omnitracs satellite communications system for trucking companies. In 1989, Qualcomm’s research and development entered the area of code-division multiple access (CDMA) technologies for cell phone networks. After most US-based cellular networks announced to adopt the CDMA standard, Qualcomm raised enough money by selling its shares to mass produce CDMA-based phones, base-stations and equipment. By 2000, 39% of Qualcomm’s sales were from CDMA technology, followed by licensing (22%), wireless (22%), and other products (17%). In 2005, Qualcomm 's new research and development changed from CDMA patents to internet of things. In March 2021, Qualcomm acquired NUVIA, a server CPU startup for approximately $1.4 billion and its first products-laptop CPUs were launched in the second half of 2022. 

      On the ranking of “The 3rd Daguan· Keweiwei World Brand Value Top 900” released on March 18, 2023, Qualcomm’s brand value was 202.898 billion RMB, ranking the 117th. Apple’s brand value was 2084.201billlion, ranking the 1st.  Nvidia’s brand value was 570.376 billion RMB, ranking the 34th.

www.bvrcn.com 品牌价值网

作者：杨瑞安