Qualcomm’s second fiscal quarter showed a 41% improvement in revenues year-over-year led by sales of its Snapdragon chips for handsets, especially for Samsung Galaxy S 22 smartphones.
Record revenues hit $11.1 billion of which $6.3 billion was for handset chips (which improved 56%), but CEO Cristiano Amon again reminded analysts on Wednesday’s earnings call that Qualcomm is more than a smartphone chipmaker.
“While we love the questions about handsets, I want to point out to you all we’re changing from a communications company into a connected processing company for the intelligent edge,” Amon said. He noted $1.7 billion in IoT revenues, an improvement of 61% year-over-year, as well as $1.1 billion in RF front-end revenues, up by 28%.
“We’re just busy executing on one of the biggest opportunities in our history,” he added.
Automotive revenues came in at $339 million for the quarter, but the big news for automotive was a $3 billion improvement in auto design contract wins in recent months to $16 billion. “Qualcomm is fast becoming the preferred industry partner for the auto industry,” Amon said. He noted the recent Arriver acquisition and collaborations with BMW and Stellantis.
“It’s looking really good as cars are connected computers on wheels,” Amon said. “The Snapdragon Digital Chassis is resonating and probably ahead of original projections.”
Analysts repeatedly wondered how much of an impact Covid lockdowns in China have had on both sales of handsets in China made by Chinese companies, including Huawei, but also on the supply chain with shutdowns of factories.
Amon was relatively vague on supply chain concerns. “The supply situation is going as planned,” he said. "We still have more demand than supply across all businesses.”
Qualcomm shares improved by more than 1% to $135.10 at market close but were climbing nearly 6% after hours.
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