Incoming Qualcomm CEO on the semiconductor crisis, Nvidia's purchase of Arm

[midian182]

What just happened? Cristiano Amon, the 50-year-old Brazilian president of Qualcomm, will become only the fourth CEO in the tech giant's 36-year history this June. He recently gave a far-reaching interview about the state of the industry, from the chip shortage to Nvidia's takeover of Arm. Here are some of the highlights.

Speaking to CNET, Amon didn't gloss over the seriousness of the problems caused by the current worldwide dearth of chips. "If you asked me, 'what keeps me up at night?' right now [it] is this supply chain crisis we're having in the semiconductor industry," he said.

Qualcomm relies on companies such as TSMC and Samsung to build most of its chips. While that can be convenient, it also brings its own set of issues: Samsung is still in the process of getting its Austin, Texas, plant back to normal production levels after the extreme weather saw it close temporarily. The factory makes chips for its own LSI division, Tesla, and Qualcomm.

When asked if Qualcomm would ever build its own fabs to produce the Snapdragon SoC, Amon said: "We're very good at designing chips, and we're very good at implementing technologies for a very fast pace of innovation … Manufacturing of semiconductors is a whole different expertise."

We know that everything from the automotive industry to PC hardware and gaming consoles have felt the effects of global semiconductor shortage. Reports claim it could last well into 2022, but Amon is more optimistic.

"This is going to get better as we get to the end of 2021," he said. "But the importance of this is to call attention and make sure that we have … [a] robust supply chain, and investments are made ... across a number of technologies."

Elsewhere, Amon emphasized the importance of Arm remaining independent. Qualcomm is one of several companies to have publicly opposed Nvidia's $40 billion purchase of the UK chip designer and has urged regulators to look deeper at the deal's antitrust implications. Qualcomm is anxious that Nvidia could keep vital parts of Arm's intellectual property.

"The strength of the Arm roadmap is its independence," Amon said. "Nvidia does not need to buy Arm to do what they said they're going to do." He believes Nvidia doesn't need to buy Arm to compete with Intel's x86 architecture.

"The Arm ecosystems thrives ... and creates incredible competition across the globe because it's independent," Amon added.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88849-incoming-qualcomm-ceo-semiconductor-crisis-nvidia-takeover-arm.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Nvidia dropped to $498.

I've been flying with this stock since March's crash.

Still a strong buy - and pays a 0.13% dividend.

 

[Peter Farkas]

Nvidia dropped to $498.

I've been flying with this stock since March's crash.

Still a strong buy - and pays a 0.13% dividend.

I was hesitating to sell my nvidia stock when it went above 610 but since it was just a bit ahead of earnings I hoped it would climb higher and then I would sell. how wrong I was lol. barely managed to get out of that position with minimal profit.
It is definitely a great buy at the moment.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I was hesitating to sell my nvidia stock when it went above 610 but since it was just a bit ahead of earnings I hoped it would climb higher and then I would sell. how wrong I was lol. barely managed to get out of that position with minimal profit.
It is definitely a great buy at the moment.

I personally don't sell my Dividend payers. I ride them forever and ever.

Nvidia is going to $1000. It may take a while, but we will get there.

 

[Peter Farkas]

I personally don't sell my Dividend payers. I ride them forever and ever.

I don't have enough to count on a meaningful amount of dividend, so I am just trading as best as I can.

 

[himindedlolife]

As far as their CPUs go, ARM designs the chips and TSMC builds them. What does Qualcomm even do besides tinker a bit and slap a label on the side?

 

[punctualturn]

As far as their CPUs go, ARM designs the chips and TSMC builds them. What does Qualcomm even do besides tinker a bit and slap a label on the side?

They have a monopoly on modems, plus a boatload of IP's.

 

[neeyik]

As far as their CPUs go, ARM designs the chips and TSMC builds them. What does Qualcomm even do besides tinker a bit and slap a label on the side?

Arm doesn’t really design chips - they design architectures. Qualcomm then licences these systems to create their chips, working out how to organise and set out every part in the full design. Qualcomm then contracts TSMC to manufacture the final design.

Edit: think of Arm as being a collection of engineers (civil, mechanical, electrical) who design fundamental structures, such as houses, roads, power stations. They produce libraries of documents of ways that they can fit together. Qualcomm is like a city designer, taking all of the required elements, and fitting them together into a single structure that has clear limits on size, budget, power usage, etc. TSMC is the workforce who then make the city.

 

[punctualturn]

As I said it again, I feel dirty of siding with Qualcomm, but Nvidia must not be allowed to purchase ARM.

They simply dont have any good intentions for the industry and will screw everyone over, as they have done to their partners and us the customers over and over.

 

[punctualturn]

Arm doesn’t really design chips - they design architectures. Qualcomm then licences these systems to create their chips, working out how to organise and set out every part in the full design. Qualcomm then contracts TSMC to manufacture the final design.

Edit: think of Arm as being a collection of engineers (civil, mechanical, electrical) who design fundamental structures, such as houses, roads, power stations. They produce libraries of documents of ways that they can fit together. Qualcomm is like a city designer, taking all of the required elements, and fitting them together into a single structure that has clear limits on size, budget, power usage, etc. TSMC is the workforce who then make the city.

Thats a good explanation.

One thing though, I recall that they abandoned custom cores, since they were slower than reference ARM cores, so they went back to those. Of course, Adreno is theirs, same for their modems, but the main CPU cores are the same as ARM's.

 

[godrilla]

Want to hear a joke? Anti trust laws! Nvidia bought Mellanox just last year and is now in the process of buying ARM. Watch out Qualcomm your next!

 

[godrilla]

Nvidia dropped to $498.

I've been flying with this stock since March's crash.

Still a strong buy - and pays a 0.13% dividend.

Don't blink it's $463 now. What a bear market!

 

[spydercanopus]

NVIDIA must be selling chips to governments to guide bombs or whatever.

If they acquire ARM, you'll see a shortage of those, too.

They don't work for consumers anymore. They've transcended to black ops.

 

[Avro Arrow]

"The Arm ecosystems thrives ... and creates incredible competition across the globe because it's independent,"

Well, that explains why nVidia bought it. Few corporations are more anti-competition than nVidia.

 

[godrilla]

"The Arm ecosystems thrives ... and creates incredible competition across the globe because it's independent,"

Well, that explains why nVidia bought it. Few corporations are more anti-competition than nVidia.

Well the other anti competition corporation is Apple and guess what now Apple will be Nvidia's consumer. Will they call their next chip N1 for Nvidia inside?