Cristiano Amon, the Chief Executive of Qualcomm said that the semiconductor supplier is ready to work with foundries within Europe if they are able to attract the right partners through incentive programmes for boosting the continent’s automotive chip production. Amon spoke at the IAA car show held in Munich and said that the European foundries were now geared towards mass producing semiconductors. However, Qualcomm is interested in the ongoing welcoming debate regarding making investments in high-end production. Speaking in an interview, the CEO said that the European and French government are conducting some very interesting dialogue because they seem to have an interest in attracting more foundries to the continent.
Europe’s carmakers have been hit by a chip shortage, which has also revealed their dependence on Asia. Therefore, the European Union is now interested in multimillion dollar investments that would help in doubling Europe’s share of global chip production in the next decade. In addition, Intel, the US chipmaker also made an announcement at the Munich car show about investing around 80 billion euros or $95 billion in two major chip plants in Europe in the next decade, with additional details to be disclosed by the end of the year.
In a keynote speak, Pat Gelsinger, the CEO at Intel, said that they would also be opening their semiconductor plant for automakers in Ireland. Most of the manufacturing done by Qualcomm targets leading-edge technology, with most of the foundries in the region located in the United States, South Korea and Taiwan. Amon added that he was fully behind the European Union’s plan of attracting more foundries. He said that Qualcomm would be interested in using these foundries, if the same were to happen with leading process technology. Based in California, the group is the number one supply of key semiconductors that are used in mobile phones in the world.
It has been making a push into the car industry with chips that can power infotainment systems and dashboards at the same time. The company’s commitment to the car sector is also highlighted by the recent bid they made for Veoneer Inc., the Swedish auto parts maker worth $4.6 billion. According to Amon, it had been received quite well by the industry. He went on to say that they were planning to stay in the automotive industry. The CEO had taken the helm of the company in June and also disclosed that this week, he was going to have meetings with CEOs of all German car manufacturers.
He went on to say that out of the 26 global automotive brands, Qualcomm was already working with 23 of them. Amon also said that they already had commercial relationships with German carmakers and were also planning future relationships. This week, a deal with Renault in France was announced by Qualcomm, which comes after an agreement made earlier this year with General Motors. Qualcomm is working with all major contract manufacturers, or global foundries, including Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Semiconductor Manufacturing International and GlobalFoundries.
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