Amon (Cristiano Amon), chief executive of Qualcomm, a world-renowned semiconductor maker, said on Wednesday that Qualcomm was willing to work with them in Europe if the EU incentive scheme for automotive chip production could attract suitable advanced contract manufacturers. He also believes that the problem of core shortage will be significantly alleviated next year.
The chip shortage has hit European carmakers and exposed their dependence on external supply chains. To address this problem, the EU is promoting billions of dollars in investment, hoping to double Europe's share of global chip production over the next decade.
Amon said in an interview at the IAA Motor Show in Munich on Wednesday that European contract factories were committed to mass production of semiconductors, but that investment in advanced processes that Qualcomm was interested in was still being debated.
"if [the investment] happens in cutting-edge process technology, Qualcomm will certainly be interested in working with these contract manufacturers." Amon said.
Most of Qualcomm's products are aimed at cutting-edge technology, while most of the contract factories in the high-end sector are in Taiwan, South Korea and the US, he said. Qualcomm will fully support the EU's plan to attract contract manufacturers.
Will stay in the field of automotive chips.
As the world's largest supplier of mobile phone chips, Qualcomm is moving into the automotive industry, introducing a number of dashboards and infotainment system chips. Qualcomm's recent $4.6 billion acquisition of Swedish auto parts maker Veoneer, fully demonstrates Qualcomm's interest in the auto industry.
Amon said the deal was well received by the industry. "We will stay in the auto industry," Amon said.
Amon said he would meet with CEO, of all the major German carmakers this week and said Qualcomm was currently working with 23 of the world's 26 car brands. "We currently have business relationships with all German carmakers or have plans for future cooperation".
Amon added that its car business had received $10 billion in contract orders over the past four years.
At the same time, Qualcomm also works with all the major wafer foundry manufacturers around the world, including TSMC, Samsung Electronics, Groufonde Semiconductor and SMIC. Amon said it had done a lot of work over the past 12 months to build new manufacturing facilities with suppliers to cope with the global chip shortage. "We expect most of the core shortages to be solved in 2022."
At the Munich auto show, Intel also said it would invest up to 80 billion euros ($95 billion) in two major European chip plants over the next 10 years, details of which will be announced before the end of the year. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said Intel would also open semiconductor plants in Ireland for carmakers.
