Early 5G rollout helps Qualcomm log strong Q4 results

The net income was $1.6 billion as shares of Qualcomm went up over 6 per cent in the after-hour trading on Wednesday.

San Francisco: Bullish on the early success of its 5G rollout, chip-maker Qualcomm has posted strong results for its fourth quarter, logging $6.5 billion in revenue which is up 35 per cent (year-over-year).

The net income was $1.6 billion as shares of Qualcomm went up over 6 per cent in the after-hour trading on Wednesday.

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“Our fiscal fourth quarter results demonstrate that our investments in 5G are coming to fruition and showing benefits in our licensing and product businesses,” said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm.

“We concluded the year with exceptional fourth quarter results and are well positioned for growth in 2021 and beyond. As the pace of disruption in wireless technology accelerates, we will continue to drive growth and scale across our RF front-end, Automotive and IoT adjacencies,” he explained.

In the fiscal 2020, the company delivered $2.4 billion of RF front-end revenue, up 60 per cent year-over-year.

Qualcomm is now one of the largest RF suppliers with design wins across all its premium-tier smartphone customers.

“The early success of our 5G rollout is a great testament to our strategy of investing well in advance of these large opportunities. 5G represents the single largest opportunity in our history, creating new opportunities to extend our leadership,” Mollenkopf said.

Inching closer to its 5G rollout, Reliance Jio, which counts 400 million subscribers on its 4G network in India, last month achieved a 1000 Mbps throughput milestone for its first round of 5G trials in partnership with Qualcomm.

The two companies announced that they have achieved over a 1Gbps (1,000 MBPS) speed on the Reliance Jio 5GNR solution and the Qualcomm 5G RAN Platform.

The company said during the earnings call with analysts that in the field of IoT, it is extending IP investments from across the company into the portfolio of connected and non-connected products with a broad portfolio of technologies, including connectivity, lower power processing, and security.

“We are also diversified across multiple product areas and industry verticals as we have nearly 13,000 customers,” Mollenkopf said.

“We’ve also brought wearable solutions to our smartphone OEMs, as well as the broader ecosystem of consumer product companies.”