Qualcomm does indeed have 50,000-ish employees, double those of Nvidia and AMD
Why it matters: After looking at revenue and operating income per employee for big semiconductor companies, we thought that was a fun exercise, so we have looked at another dozen tech companies in various sectors. Broadcom and Apple are in a league of their own – it is good to have a software or licensing business.
The chip companies are never going to really love this business
The big picture: Earlier this year we were reviewing Analyst Day slides from leading semiconductor companies and a clear theme emerged. Large companies are all shifting in a similar direction, posing some potential challenges for their long-term positions. More and more customers are looking for special purpose chips, a coping mechanism for dealing with the slowdown in Moore's Law. And the big players are all looking to support those customers.