Qualcomm is one of the global technology giants, and its 2G-4G networks are all patented by this company. However, in the later period, my country's Huawei began to develop rapidly and suddenly had the world's leading 5G technology, because it involves Patent issues, so Huawei ultimately had to pay a compensation to Qualcomm. But after receiving a "compensation" of 1.8 billion from Huawei, Qualcomm changed its attitude and finally relented, saying that it had applied to the US government to continue providing chip support to Huawei. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
According to Jiemian News, after Huawei settled US$1.8 billion, the attitude of Qualcomm executives changed 180 degrees. In an interview, the president mentioned that he had applied to the country’s Ministry of Commerce and hoped to continue Export chips to Huawei. The United States has already said that if the exported chips are not used in 5G projects, Qualcomm's application can be approved. Although it appears to have solved the chip crisis for Huawei, in fact the company's purpose is not simple, because once the company's chips are used, they will have to pay patent fees in the future. This is the situation for many domestic mobile phones in our country. , because it uses Qualcomm chips, merchants have to pay patent fees to Qualcomm every time they sell a mobile phone.
Although the urgent need has been solved, it is still on the passive side and being led by the other party. This is not good news. No wonder it is said that Qualcomm’s large profits come from the Chinese market. If Huawei really agrees to cooperate with Qualcomm this time, it will continue to send large amounts of money to Qualcomm in the future. This is already contrary to Huawei’s original intention of independently developing chips. . And there is reason to believe that Qualcomm is resuming supply to China because it is worried that in the future, when my country's Huawei develops domestic chips, it will have an impact on the company's chip sales. Losing China's huge market will be a huge loss for them.
According to the fourth quarter financial report of 2020 released by Qualcomm, the company’s revenue in the fourth quarter was US$8.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 73%, which included a compensation paid by Huawei. However, although Huawei also paid US$1.8 billion this time, it was not fully guaranteed. Qualcomm will spit out part of it and return it to Huawei in the future, because Huawei has mastered the mature 5G technology and obtained the patent rights. After it becomes popular in the future, Qualcomm may also need to pay patent fees. . This is not the first compensation that Qualcomm has accepted. In the early days, Apple also paid Qualcomm a compensation. There have been legal disputes between the two, which led to Qualcomm being excluded from Apple products for a long time. But in the end, Apple The company needed 5G technical support, so it settled with Qualcomm and paid compensation to it.
Since the U.S. sanctions were issued, the U.S. domestic technology industry has been severely hit, including Qualcomm. Without Huawei’s compensation in the fourth quarter, I believe Qualcomm’s earnings will not be optimistic. In the future, after Huawei develops domestic chips, the chips will become worthless, and Qualcomm may really face an economic crisis by then.
In the past, our country has always relied on American chip technology. Since the U.S. government issued a chip sanctions order to Huawei, Huawei has faced a short-term chip crisis. Since then, Huawei has begun independent research and development, hoping to produce its own domestic chips and completely get rid of its dependence on American technology. If Qualcomm and Huawei cooperate again this time, Huawei's independent research and development projects will be delayed, which will not be of any help to our country's technological independence goals.
In fact, for this reason, ASML of the Netherlands took the initiative to express its willingness to continue to cooperate with Huawei and export photolithography machine technology to my country, saying that it does not need to apply to the United States. The company did this after the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that it would enter the lithography machine market and develop the technology at all costs. ASML understands my country's strength and will definitely realize it in the future, so it is worried that its market will be divided, and thus puts forward the same idea as Qualcomm.