Qualcomm posts its final-quarter and fiscal results for 2020

Qualcomm has reported end-of-fiscal-2020 revenues of US$23.9 billion, or 3% more compared to those of 2019. $8.35 billion of this was made in the year's final quarter, or an impressive 73% year-on-year (YoY). The company's CEO, Steve Mollenkopf, attributed this "exceptional" growth to its all-in attitude to 5G.

This OEM has indeed contributed a healthy proportion of the mobile chipsets capable of using this new radio standard in 2020. They include the Snapdragon 865 and 865+, which made all flagship phones equipped with them 5G by default, not to mention the nearly-ubiquitous mid-range 765G.

As a result, QCT (the division of Qualcomm responsible for this hardware) posted fiscal 2020 revenues of $16.5 billion, or 13% YoY, even though it shipped 12% fewer chipsets YoY (575 million, compared to 650 million in FY2019).

These results also meant that the company was able to pay dividends of $2.54 per share in 2020. Nevertheless, it intends to diversify its focus in 2021 into other areas of its business, including RF front-end (RFFE) modules for modems, chipsets for the automotive industry and internet-of-things (IoT) components.