Qualcomm releases 2020 Q4 quarterly financial report

Chip manufacturer Qualcomm recently released its 2020 Q4 quarterly financial report. The financial report showed that Qualcomm’s revenue in the 2020 Q4 quarter was as high as $8.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 73%.

The surge in revenue is mainly due to the fact that more and more manufacturers have begun to adopt 5G chips provided by Qualcomm, which has resulted in a high increase in Qualcomm’s overall shipments over the same period.

Of course, when it comes to 5G chips, it is natural to mention Apple. The iPhone 12 series launched by Apple supports 5G networks and uses Qualcomm modems.

Although Qualcomm’s revenue in the 2020 Q4 quarter increased by 73% year-on-year, 38% of this 73% was due to the one-time payment of patent licensing fees by Huawei.

In July 2020, Qualcomm and Huawei reached a long-term patent licensing agreement. Since then, Qualcomm has completed intellectual property agreements with all major mobile phone manufacturers around the world.

After Qualcomm and Huawei have reached a long-term patent licensing agreement, Huawei will obtain a number of patent use rights held by Qualcomm, which is beneficial but not harmful to the development of Huawei’s series of products.

According to the agreement, Huawei will pay Qualcomm a one-time payment of up to 1.8 billion U.S. dollars. Qualcomm has confirmed receipt of Huawei’s licensing fees in this financial report.

Qualcomm said that even without the authorization fee paid by Huawei during the quarter, its revenue grew by 35% year-on-year, which is relatively high.

Of course, Qualcomm’s goal does not stop there. Qualcomm is currently actively applying for relevant licenses from the US Department of Commerce so that it can continue to sell chip products to Huawei. At present, some semiconductor companies have obtained supply licenses to Huawei.