Qualcomm Meng Pu: Open cooperation is the general trend and we are willing to become a "stabilizing force" in cooperation in the field of science and technology

"The theme of this year's Jiwei Summit, 'Exploring the New Logic of the Iterative Era', is very consistent with the current situation faced by the industry. When the external environment is full of uncertainty, the industry can actively unite to explore solutions and think about development strategies. This is also an important reason why our industry can continue to move forward. The Jiwei Summit provides a very good platform to strengthen the connection between all parties in the industry and increase everyone's confidence in working together to overcome difficulties."

At the 2020 Jiwei Summit held today, Qualcomm China Chairman Meng Pu gave a high evaluation of this year's summit. At the meeting, Meng Pu accepted an exclusive interview with Jiwei.com and expressed his views on the summit's themes such as semiconductor industry intellectual property, talent training, investment and financing, as well as 5G, semiconductor industry development under the game of major powers, and domestic substitution.

Strengthening intellectual property protection will give foreign companies confidence to take root

As a technology-intensive industry, intellectual property protection is a compulsory course that semiconductor companies must pay attention to. This Jiwei Summit also set up a special forum on intellectual property rights, with the theme of "Intellectual Property Risk Control and Response under the New Situation", inviting industry professionals to share and exchange contemporary intellectual property operation strategies and practices.

Meng Pu said that Qualcomm has been cooperating with China's mobile communications industry for more than 25 years. During this process, it can be clearly seen that China has taken many measures to strengthen intellectual property protection and optimize the business environment, and has achieved remarkable results.

"Qualcomm's successful development in China has benefited from intellectual property protection. As one of the foreign companies with the most invention patents in China, Qualcomm is an eyewitness and witness of China's continuous strengthening of intellectual property protection," said Meng Pu.

The World Bank's "Doing Business Report" in 2019 shows that China jumped from 46th in 2018 to 31st, and has been listed as one of the top ten economies in the world with the largest improvements in business environment for two consecutive years.

Meng Pu pointed out that for many years China has been strengthening intellectual property protection through various measures such as legislation. China has now elevated the importance of intellectual property protection to an unprecedented level, which will help promote China's scientific and technological innovation, help all types of companies to participate in competition on an equal footing in China, enhance the attractiveness of the Chinese market to outstanding global companies, and boost the enthusiasm of foreign-funded companies to explore the Chinese market.

Meng Pu said that as a high-tech company, Qualcomm insists on investing more than 20% of its revenue in research and development every year, which is a very high proportion in the industry. In the more than 30 years since its establishment, Qualcomm has invested more than 61 billion US dollars in research and development. Qualcomm has always regarded innovation as the lifeline and core competitiveness of the company. It has also lowered the technical threshold of innovation through the "invention-sharing-collaboration" business model, benefiting the entire communications industry and accelerating the development of the entire ecosystem.

"We have full confidence in China's intellectual property protection system. This has become an important factor encouraging us to increase investment in China and strengthen Qualcomm's confidence in long-term investment and 'taking root' in China. We look forward to China's intellectual property system getting better and better, and stronger protection, so that Chinese and foreign companies including Qualcomm can have a better environment for development. It also makes us more confident to increase investment and R&D input, invent more advanced technologies to empower China's industrial innovation, and help China achieve innovation-driven, industrial prosperity and high-quality economic development." Meng Pu said.

Semiconductor investment is booming, effectiveness and quality should be put first

In recent years, driven by policies, the semiconductor industry capital market has been extremely hot, and recent developments including Sino-US relations, supply chain security and the opening of the Science and Technology Innovation Board have become catalysts for semiconductor investment and financing. At this year's Jiwei Summit, a special forum related to investment and financing was also set up, inviting industry professionals to give in-depth explanations on the current capital market and sub-sectors.

Meng Pu said that in the past few years, China's investment in the semiconductor industry, whether it is the central or local government, various industrial funds or social capital, has been very large. This has a very positive and active guiding role in the development of China's semiconductor industry and accelerating the gathering of resources including talent, technology and other aspects to China's semiconductor field.

But at the same time, Meng Pu also called for rational investment in this field, putting the effectiveness and quality of investment first, cultivating and supporting excellent companies with development potential, and avoiding blind investment.

Qualcomm has always maintained a close cooperative relationship with the Chinese semiconductor industry, and has also accompanied the steady growth of Chinese semiconductor companies through venture capital. Meng Pu took the example of AMEC, which was listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board last year. Qualcomm invested in AMEC in 2007. At that time, domestic equipment manufacturers did not receive much attention from the outside world. Qualcomm valued the potential demand for semiconductor equipment in the future and AMEC's ​​first-class entrepreneurial team, which reflects the long-term nature of Qualcomm's investment in China's semiconductor industry.

"For Qualcomm, whether it is a startup or a relatively mature company, we hope to achieve win-win results through cooperation, such as the cooperation between Qualcomm and SMIC on 28nm, 14nm and 10nm advanced process technologies. Qualcomm and the Chinese semiconductor industry will continue to cooperate for a long time," said Meng Pu.

According to Meng Pu, Qualcomm has invested in more than 60 companies in China over the past decade, including in the semiconductor industry. Qualcomm's deep technical accumulation in the semiconductor industry, wireless connectivity, mobile computing and other fields, its industrial resources in a wide range of ecosystem partnerships, and its global vision as a leading multinational company with insights into different markets around the world will bring great help to the invested companies.

R16 contributes key inventions, and the industry chain is active in the 5G expansion year

At the beginning of last month, 3GPP announced the freezing of the R16 standard, marking the completion of the first evolution version of the 5G standard. R16 includes a series of technical projects, and Qualcomm has contributed key technical inventions in six major areas to further expand and enhance the foundation of 5G NR. These six major areas include: unlicensed spectrum, advanced power saving features and mobility, high-precision positioning, direct communication, business-critical design, new deployment models, etc.

Meng Pu said that the freezing of the R16 standard is an important milestone for the entire mobile industry and the broader ecosystem. Compared with the previous R15, which achieved an improvement in capabilities based on 4G, R16 can truly expand 5G to new services, spectrum and deployment models, and expand to areas beyond traditional mobile broadband services, truly unleashing the potential of 5G.

Meng Pu introduced that in terms of millimeter wave, R16 added more enhancements to millimeter wave beams and introduced integrated access backhaul (IAB) nodes to provide more convenience for the deployment of millimeter wave. Qualcomm has also made many contributions in this regard.

"To truly unleash the energy of 5G, we must use higher and wider spectrums. The existing spectrum resources below 6GHz are not available in many countries around the world. To truly unleash the potential of 5G, we must use millimeter waves. Qualcomm will make every effort to promote the commercial use of millimeter waves in China." Meng Pu said.

In terms of 5G terminals, Meng Pu said that this year is the year of 5G expansion. By providing solutions covering different levels, Qualcomm supports partners to launch 5G mobile phones in more price ranges, bringing rich choices to consumers.

According to Meng Pu, this year, Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 is the preferred platform for major global 5G flagship terminals and is well received by the industry. Currently, more than 160 flagship terminal designs using Snapdragon 865 have been released or are being designed. In June this year, Qualcomm also launched the Snapdragon 690 5G mobile platform. Following the Snapdragon 8 series and 7 series, the Snapdragon 6 series introduced 5G for the first time, which will greatly promote and accelerate the commercialization of 5G and further promote the widespread popularization of 5G.

In addition, Meng Pu pointed out that after the R16 standard was frozen, the market began to have widespread demand for 5G terminals such as non-smartphones such as 5G modules and CPE. Qualcomm is also cooperating with many partners in many fields such as industrial Internet, Internet of Things, intelligent transportation, and intelligent manufacturing.

"In the year of 5G expansion, the entire industrial chain will become extremely active." Meng Pu told Jiwei.com.