Apple to use its own modems in iPhones in 2024: Qualcomm CEO at MWC 2023

Strap: Cristiano Amon, the CEO of Qualcomm, stated that the company is making no plans to provide modems for Apple in 2024, but he added that the decision is up to the tech giant. 

Apple is reportedly planning to produce its own 5G modem chips for the 2024 iPhone, moving away from Qualcomm, which currently provides the modems. Cristiano Amon, the CEO of Qualcomm, stated that the company is making no plans to provide modems for Apple in 2024, but he added that the decision is up to the tech giant. 

“We’re making no plans for 2024, my planning assumption is we’re not providing [Apple] a modem in ’24, but it’s their decision to make,” Cristiano Amon told CNBC at the Mobile World Congress happening in Barcelona.

Amon also noted that Qualcomm had informed investors in 2021 that it did not expect to provide modems for the iPhone in 2023, but Apple decided to continue for another year. Apple purchased Intel’s modem business in 2019 for around $1 billion, and it has been speculated that the company will start using in-house parts this year.

Amon did not confirm whether Apple would pay Qualcomm QTL licenses if it moves to its own modems, but he stated that royalties were "independent from providing a chip". 

Qualcomm has been expanding its business into automotive semiconductors and low-power applications. The company is currently involved in a legal battle with British semiconductor firm Arm, which filed a US lawsuit against Qualcomm. The legal battle comes as Qualcomm seeks to expand in the PC market, and it acquired a company called Nuvia, whose server chips are based on Arm architecture.

Regarding the US government's reported consideration of revoking export licenses for US suppliers to Huawei, Amon stated that Qualcomm has licenses to sell 4G chips to Huawei and that the company is compliant with its license. A revocation of its license would result in a financial hit to Qualcomm, but Amon stressed that the company is more diversified and is growing in automobiles and the internet of things.

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