Looked at a certain way, Qualcomm’s growth strategy is defining the direction of the entire wireless industry. They’ve been riding the wireless growth wave for decades, and more recently have expanded their focus to 5G, AI, IoT, the cloud and, perhaps most compellingly, the metaverse.
Under new chief executive Cristiano Amon, the company’s metaverse strategy, if played right, could translate to an even stronger growth opportunity moving forward for Qualcomm ( QCOM ) and its investors. It’s another chance for Qualcomm to work with companies in other industries — including healthcare, automotive, retail and more — that are looking to transform their business models to remain competitive.
The big news in this regard is the company’s signing of an extended partnership with Facebook parent Meta ( META ). Under the multi-year agreement — announced by Amon and Mark Zuckerberg at the IFA consumer electronics conference Sept. 2 in Berlin — the companies will collaborate on “a new era of spatial computing” powered by Snapdragon extended reality (XR) platforms and technologies for the Meta Quest platform.
The announcement comes after seven years of collaboration on virtual reality projects by the two companies. Speaking at IFA, Zuckerberg described Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR chips as playing a significant role in the “future roadmap of Quest products.” The new agreement “solidifies the mutual commitment to deliver multiple generations of premium devices and experiences powered by custom VR platforms in the years to come,” the companies said.
In his keynote, Amon said: “By partnering with Meta, we are bringing together two of the world’s metaverse leaders to revolutionize the future of computing for billions of people in the coming years. Building off our joint leadership in XR, this agreement will allow our companies to deliver best-in-class devices and experiences to transform how we work, play, learn, create, and connect in a fully realized metaverse.”
For Qualcomm, technologies like wireless, IoT, AI, cloud computing, 5G and the metaverse have the potential both to grow independently and to work together. Consider how these technologies connect and enable users with smartphones, tablets and many other technologies in many different industries — healthcare, automotive, manufacturing, retail, warehouses and much more.
That is the unmistakable growth opportunity for the entire wireless industry. And it looks like Qualcomm is positioning itself to leverage it.
Jeff Kagan, a telecom, technology and wireless industry analyst and consultant, is an Equities.com columnist. He covers 5G, AI, IoT, the metaverse, autonomous driving, healthcare, telehealth, pay TV and more. Follow him at JeffKagan.com, and on Twitter @jeffkagan and LinkedIn.
Read Next
