Qualcomm chief open to work with foundry partners in Europe - Reuters

Qualcomm Inc’s chief said the semiconductor designer company is open to working with foundries in Europe to boost automobile chip production if incentive programs attract proper business partners.

Although European semiconductor foundries are gearing towards mass production, Chief Executive Cristiano Amon told Reuters at the IAA Mobility 2021 in Munich, the company is interested in high-end production.

“There is a very constructive dialogue taking place, by the French government, the European government, I think they have an interest in attracting foundries to Europe,” Amon told Reuters in an interview.

To tackle the ongoing chip shortage, the European Union, in March, announced to invest $160 billion of its COVID-19 recovery fund to grow its global chip market share to 20% by 2030.

On Tuesday, at the Munich car show, U.S. chipmaker Intel proposed to invest up to 80 billion euros ($95 billion) over the next decade in two major European chip-making facilities.

Intel Corp will also open its Ireland plant for automakers, CEO Pat Gelsinger announced.

Qualcomm primarily invests in leading-edge technology for semiconductor manufacturing, with most of its foundries are located in Taiwan, South Korea, and the United States, Amon said, mentioning it was in full support of the EU plans to attract foundries.

“In the event that that happens with the leading process technology, Qualcomm is definitely going to be interested in utilizing those foundries.”

The California-based company is the world leader in chip supply for mobile phones and presently is pushing into the automobile industry to power the dashboards and infotainment systems of vehicles.

Amon, who took charge of Qualcomm in June, said he was meeting the CEOs of all major German carmakers this week, adding that the company is working with 23 of the 26 global automotive brands and had built up a $10 billion contracted backlog in its automotive business over the past four years.

Qualcomm works with all major global foundries or contract manufacturers, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Samsung Electronics, GlobalFoundries, and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMI).

Amon said the company had done a lot in the past 12 months to build new manufacturing facilities with its suppliers to counter the global chip shortage and “expect to enter 2022 with the majority of this problem behind us.”

Picture Credit: Reuters