Profitable business

Chip giant Qualcomm hopes for more AI smartphones

Samsung is adding many AI functions to its Galaxy S24 series with Qualcomm CPU. Qualcomm hopes that this will set a precedent.(Bild: Dominik Erlinger)

Rising demand for smartphones with AI functions has Qualcomm optimistic about the future. After the close of the US stock exchange on Wednesday, the world's largest provider of smartphone chips announced sales and adjusted profits for the current third quarter that exceeded experts' expectations.

Turnover is expected to reach 9.2 billion dollars and earnings 2.25 dollars per share. According to LSEG data, analysts are expecting around nine billion dollars and 2.17 dollars.

Analysts' expectations exceeded
The US company also slightly exceeded forecasts in the second quarter. Qualcomm shares initially rose by three percent in US after-hours trading. Qualcomm counts both Apple and Samsung among its customers. The company's sales fell sharply last year after a boom during the pandemic. The decline was particularly noticeable in the Android phone market, where Qualcomm does the majority of its business.

Like its competitors Intel and AMD, Qualcomm has high hopes for special processors for artificial intelligence (AI) in order to compensate for the weakening demand for other chip types. For its AI products, Qualcomm was able to win the AI developer G42 from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in which Microsoft recently acquired a stake, as a customer.

Qualcomm is also working on a new processor for Microsoft's Windows operating system. The "Snapdragon Elite X" is reportedly faster than Apple's "M2 Max" in some applications. It also consumes less power than competing products from both Apple and Intel. It also has special AI functions.