Qualcomm Technologies announced a 3-year, $12 billion chipset deal with three China based phone companies: Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo.
The chipset deal is significant because Qualcomm is currently facing huge struggle to generate revenue from Apple, one of its main customers. Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are the top five smartphone companies.
Enhancement in the generation of chipset revenue from China shows the capability of Qualcomm chipsets to attract smartphone customers in markets such as India, China, among others.
Qualcomm is currently facing a $130 billion acquisition bid from smaller rival Broadcom. The Singapore-based Broadcom is bidding for Qualcomm anticipating that shareholders of Qualcomm will accept the bid because of its current weak position in the wireless chip market.
Qualcomm in a statement said that it has signed three non-binding memoranda of understanding (MoU) with Xiaomi Communications., Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications and vivo Communication Technology for purchasing components with an aggregate value of no less than $12 billion over the next three years.
China President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump were present at the signing ceremony in Beijing, China.
Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf was part of President Donald Trump’s Department of Commerce Trade Delegation to China.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, OPPO CEO Chen Mingyong and vivo CEO Shen Wei attended and signed for their respective companies.
Steve Mollenkopf, chief executive officer, Qualcomm, said: “Qualcomm has relationships with Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo and we are continuing our commitment to investing and helping advance China’s mobile and semiconductor industries.”
Qualcomm Technologies has a number of branches, joint ventures and R&D centers in Guizhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen, among others.
