QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Stacy Rasgon: Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. So given that you’ve got Android, Android was pretty strong in December, and it’s flat into March. How are you thinking about June seasonality given all these trends and moving pieces? I know it’s usually down a bit for March, but I guess in the current what are you thinking about June seasonality.

Akash Palkhiwala: Stacy, it’s Akash. No change to the shape of the year comments that we made last time. Following second quarter, we do expect third quarter to be the lowest quarter. It’s one of the quarters where we do not have any significant flagship launches. And as a result, you kind of see a decline in third quarter then growth back into the fourth quarter. And it’s — when you look at second to third quarter, we expect a trend consistent with the last two years. First half, obviously benefited from this acceleration of launches for Android and pretty happy with that. And I think it sets us up as we look forward in terms of both content growth with our strong road map and just positioning overall in the handset market.

Stacy Rasgon: Got it. Thank you. And so my follow-up, I just want to ask about Huawei — was Huawei still completely out of the model in December? And is it out of the model in the March guidance?

Akash Palkhiwala: Yeah. So as we’ve said in the past, Stacy, we do have a 4G license to ship Huawei and so we’ve continued to ship based on customer demand. But as you’re aware, they have launched a 5G device with their own chip, and that’s, I think, the priority going forward.

Operator: Our next question is from the line of Chris Caso with Wolfe Research. Please proceed with your question.

Chris Caso: Yes. Thank you. I guess just a question on QTL and coming from your comments about the global handset market, it sounds like you’re a little more optimistic on the 5G market on the year, QTL revenue has been kind of stuck in this range because of where handset units have been. Do you — I guess what’s the outlook for QTL going forward in the context of what you’re expecting for the handset market overall.

Akash Palkhiwala: Yeah. So as we outlined for our handset market, when you look at calendar ’24, overall market, we expect it to be flat to slightly up. But within that, 5G, obviously, is our target market, especially for the chip business, we expect that to be high-single digit to low double-digit up on a year-over-year basis. Within QTL, I will stick with the guidance we have given before. We think there’s a scale to the business that’s aligned with the handset market and the 2 will move in line. And then on the extensions of the license, I just wanted to make sure that I said this in my prepared remarks, but just to confirm, as a result of the extension, we do not expect any material change in our QCT licensing revenue run rate. So it’s consistent with the program. In the QTL licensing revenue run rate, it’s consistent with the program.

Chris Caso: Okay. That’s helpful. As a follow-up, Cristiano, I wonder if you could speak to sort of the decision to reengage in custom cores with Orion and what outcome you expect that? I mean, it sounds like that’s been one of the reasons or one of the things behind the renewal of the Samsung agreement. What sort of change in the market because Qualcomm did custom cores in the past? And what do you expect to get out of that in terms of market share and content and such?

Cristiano Amon: Thank you, Chris, for your question. Look, it’s consistent, I think, with the strategy we outlined, I think, following the acquisition of Nuvia. In the past, Qualcomm has been designing now its own custom course. And I think the first instantiation of that was for PCs. Actually, if you remember, in the past, that was the key motivation as we embark on this journey to create a leading SoC for laptops for the Windows ecosystem. We needed to have the performance leadership and we needed to design our own CPU to deliver the results that we did with X Elite. Now we’re taking that across the entire road map. Your observation is correct. As we take that into mobile next, we’re seeing significant interest from our partners as it truly becomes a leadership position in the marketplace now across all course, not only graphics and AI but also CPU.

And we’re not stopping there, following smartphone that’s going to go into our automotive business, and we’re excited about what the team has accomplished to date. Orion is really well positioned to be the leading CPU core in the industry.

Operator: Next question comes from the line of Timothy Arcuri with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Timothy Arcuri: Thanks a lot. Can you talk about restocking in China? It looks like the China Android obviously, it was up a ton and it’s being guided flat. Your peer was a bit cautious on this. Can you talk — do you think you’re shipping that to consumption? And do you think you’re going to ship to consumption through the rest of the year? And then I had another question.

Akash Palkhiwala: Yeah. Tim, consistent with what I said earlier in the call, I think we were kind of largely at normalized inventory for Android entering the fiscal year. What you saw in the December quarter, at least for us, to a large extent was a build for the various premium tier launches that happened during the period. And so we do expect normal bill bleed cycles through the year as devices launch. But that’s kind of the framework with which we are operating going forward.