Qualcomm Inc is strengthening its partnerships with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) in Taiwan as it expands its presence in the artificial intelligence (AI) computer market, CEO Cristiano Amon said in Taipei yesterday ahead of the annual Computex trade show.
“Historically we’ve always been a very big customer of TSMC, and we continue to be,” Amon said during a media Q&A session.
“For chip manufacturing, we’re among the largest fabless [semiconductor designers],” he said, noting that Qualcomm, a leading provider of mobile and AI-enabled chipsets, ships about 40 billion components every year, with TSMC being the company’s “primary manufacturing partner.”
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Amon, who has a background in electronic engineering, also said that Taiwan has always been “very, very strong” in the personal computer (PC) ecosystem, highlighting Qualcomm’s growing ties with the country’s PC sector, especially in collaboration with ODMs on new hardware designs and industrial applications.
ODMs are firms that design and build devices which are then sold under another company’s brand — a sector in which Taiwan plays a leading global role, with major players such as Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶).
Amon said Qualcomm’s relationships with Taiwan’s PC ecosystem are growing at “a very fast pace,” adding that the company’s team in Taiwan has always been active and is continuing to expand.
The remarks related to Taiwan came after Amon’s keynote speech earlier in the day, in which he outlined Qualcomm’s vision for AI PCs powered by the Snapdragon X series, the company’s latest line of high-performance, AI- accelerated processors for Windows PCs.
Following the recent retail launch of laptops powered by the Snapdragon X series, Qualcomm has reached around 9 percent market share in the United States and the top five in European markets as of last quarter, Amon said.
“As new players entered the PC market, sometimes it took seven to nine years to get to about 10 percent (market) share,” he said, adding that “we are very happy” to have reached that level so quickly.
In his keynote speech, Amon also invited top executives from major PC makers — including Taiwan’s Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the US’ HP Inc, and China’s Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) — to join him on stage, where each showcased new AI-powered laptops featuring Qualcomm chips under their respective brands.
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