Report: Qualcomm has not ruled out owning wafer fabs

Published:2012/6/29 2:25:00 Author:Ecco From:SeekIC

A Bloomberg report indicated that Qualcomm Inc. (San Dieo), the world's largest fabless chip company, has not ruled out owning a wafer fab or putting large amounts of cash down to ensure the firm’s supply of semiconductor chips.

Qualcomm has suffered a shortage of 28-nm Snapdragon processors from its foundry partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC). Qualcomm said that this shortage of supply will constrain earnings growth in the second and third quarters of the year.

Paul Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm Inc., added that Qualcomm would prefer to remain fabless and not build its own wafer fabs, but that if it was advantageous to own the means of production in the future Qualcomm could do it. "It’s not something that’s high on our list of things that we want to do. But I wouldn’t rule it out completely," the report quoted Jacobs as saying.

However, the 28-nm chip supply situation is easing but some Qualcomm customers may have to delay smartphone product launches.

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