Former Chief Executive Officer, Qualcomm
Virtual debate with Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf
On 9 September, as part of EIF's ‘Meet the CEO’ series, Members of the European Parliament, EIF Members and guests had the opportunity to virtually meet and exchange views with Steve Mollenkopf, Chief Executive Officer of Qualcomm Incorporated.
The discussion, moderated by Maria Rosa Gibellini, Director General, European Internet Forum, was chaired by Pilar del Castillo MEP and EIF Chair.
More information can be found at www.internetforum.eu
About Steven Mollenkopf
In 2018, Mollenkopf expressed disappointment over the termination of Qualcomm's deal to acquire NXP Semiconductors, but noted that the company had grown its non-mobile revenue to $5 billion, a 70% increase since the deal was signed. He stated that Qualcomm did not see a change in China's posture toward the company despite the deal's failure, and described the business environment there as "very friendly" and "very constructive." Throughout 2019 and 2020, Mollenkopf described 5G as a fundamental technology change comparable to electricity or water, and cited an IHS study estimating it would generate $13.2 trillion in economic value by 2035. He said that 5G would disrupt industries including healthcare, energy, retail, and manufacturing. Mollenkopf also stated that he did not expect a separation of international 5G standards, saying it was not in the interest of companies like Qualcomm and Huawei to create such a divide. He characterized Qualcomm as the world's leading wireless technology innovator, citing $61 billion in R&D investment over 35 years.
Transcript (3 segments)
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Maria Rosa0:00
Good evening everyone and welcome back from your holiday break. Welcome back to our forum. Today's debate is a very special one for us, not just because it's our first one after the break and the first one of the new season here at EIF, but also because we have an exceptional guest of honor, as you know, with us: Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm. We expect over 60 participants connecting today, including MEPs, members of our forum, and representatives from the EU institutions. Before I introduce our chair, Pilar del Castillo, and of course Steve, our guest of honor, let me remind you of some house rules to make sure that you from the audience can also participate actively in this debate. All attendees are now on mute, but there will be a Q&A session after the speeches, of course, and you'll be most welcome to take the floor. You'll be unmuted to ask your question. To take the floor, please raise your hand with the raised hand function that you can find on the Webex app. It is usually under the participants tab. Find a moment to locate it. And for your information, even if this debate is being recorded, the questions and answer session won't be disclosed and will be under Chatham House rules, as always. We're now ready to start. The floor will go first to MEP Pilar del Castillo, who is the chair of the EIF steering committee. Pilar needs no introduction really at our forum, but I'll still mention that she's a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy at the European Parliament. She has extensive experience in digital policy and in telecommunications regulation. We'll then hear from our special guest, Steve Mollenkopf. Steve joined Qualcomm as an engineer more than 25 years ago, and he became CEO in 2014. He has helped define and implement the company's strategy and technologies, bringing the benefits of mobile to new industries. And under his leadership, Qualcomm is driving the development and launch of 5G and revolutionizing the way people connect. What is also remarkable about Steve, I must say, is that he's a published IEEE author and an inventor with 38 patents in various technology areas, and he is the chairman of the Technology CEO Council. So, very impressive. Thank you so much, Steve, for being with us today. And now over to Pilar, please.
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Pilar del Castillo2:50
Thank you very much, Maria Rosa. Dear colleagues and EIF members, thank you very much, especially for joining us in an exchange of views with Steve Mollenkopf, as Maria Rosa said, Chief Executive Officer of Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm has been instrumental in the deployment of wireless technology across nearly all industrial sectors, broadcasting use cases that range from automotive to smart factories, to agriculture, to smart cities. Likewise, it has played an important role in stimulating technological innovation, and I want to stress this, mainly through its contribution to 5G deployments at a time when COVID-19 acts as a magnifying lens, I can say, and has shown the urgent need for Europe to move up again in this digitalization, in this digital transformation. It is a great opportunity in this context to be able to have an open discussion with Qualcomm's CEO. Indeed, digital, I think, can be a field that, with determination, even digital has maintained our economy and society during the crisis. Could you imagine what would have happened only 15 years ago, 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, with the teleworking, with the kids studying and young people in the university studying from home, with the supply, you know, because e-commerce role, with entertainment, with the contact with the loved ones, so on and so forth? Totally different. This is a clear example of why we should really move up here. Well, in other words, its productivity and competitiveness potential is extraordinary and consequently will be instrumental in our recovery from the crisis. The question is how far away Europe is from achieving through 5G deployments and fully seizing all its potential, all its opportunities. And it is clear that from a policymaker perspective, we still have work ahead. And beyond ensuring that the Electronic Communications Code is implemented correctly, we must eliminate persistent obstacles for 5G deployment and create the conditions for more efficient deployments of new and secure physical infrastructures so that the networks can be drawn out at a lower cost. So, what is the view of one of the most important stakeholders in the field? We are going now to pay all our attention to what Steve Mollenkopf has to say. Thank you very much, Steve. The floor is yours.
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Steven Mollenkopf6:32
Well, thank you, thank you very much. Hopefully you can hear me okay? Yes? Good. Okay, great, great. All right. Well, thank you, Pilar, for the very kind introduction, and thank you, Maria Rosa, for hosting this event and inviting me to speak here as well. I have a short few remarks and then try to leave as much as possible for the discussion. You know, for me, progression. When I was a young engineer and a product manager at Qualcomm, I spent a lot of time actually in Europe, a lot of it in France, although some in Germany, really working on the initial rollouts of 3G in Europe. And it's something that I'm a little bit sad about now because the current engineers that work at Qualcomm, and we have about two-thirds of our employees are engineers and they're spread around the world, we have labs of course in California and Germany, France, New Jersey, Austria, and Taiwan, but what they're unable to do today, at least, is have the ability to collaborate in person by traveling back and forth, which is sort of what defined my time in terms of working with the European folks. But I think it's very important that we maintain that ability to continue to collaborate at the fundamental technology levels as 5G develops. If you look at what we're doing, we're doing cutting-edge development of artificial intelligence in Amsterdam, we're doing chipset design in Munich, technologies for coming editions of 5G and someday things that will be in 6G. And then we're out in the field. We work with fellow engineers from operators and manufacturers from Italy to Finland, and we're really trying to figure out how we make 5G work, how does it get deployed, and then how do we use it across the board. We can talk about that for a long time, I'm sure that we'll have opportunities to talk about that in the question and answer. But 5G is really in a state right now where we're deploying technologies and deploying the business models that will be built on top of these technologies. And although the pandemic is certainly something that focuses us, as you mentioned, I think it is an opportunity that, although it may be more difficult to do that given the environment, it's very important that we do that well because these are the fundamental building blocks that will create the economies that I think everyone wants to be involved in. For me, I've been working in mobile technology for my entire professional life. As I said, nothing cemented how essential wireless technologies are to our lives than this COVID-19 situation. And really, the more access we have to powerful, flexible, secure networks, the more we can keep working, stay connected with our doctors, educate our children, and keep our economies growing and help them rebound and be even stronger than they were before. If I look, the European efforts to foster strategic autonomy is all about resilience. It's all about becoming stronger through industrial, through taking steps like becoming the leader in the deployment of 5G networks and taking advantage of 5G. If you look, 5G networks are spreading quite quickly globally. We have today over 80 5G commercial networks in 40 countries. The intensity of deployment has actually accelerated post the COVID-19 situation, especially in China. Europe is actually doing quite well with 5G. It has 30 5G networks operating in 15 European countries. The 5G action plan that the EU put together and the EU and the European Commission's decision to harmonize low and mid-band spectrum, very, very important. I think extending that to millimeter wave, extremely important. These are the kind of fundamental policy decisions that allow technology to grow, and I applaud you, applaud getting to where we are today. 13 EU countries have auctioned 5G spectrum, 11 or more are planning to auction it by the end of 2020, and as I said, it's very important to continue to do that. I don't think any region gets the importance of standardized technology as much as Europe does. If you look at our industry, it is built upon really the fundamental technology sharing processes that underlie ETSI and really the standardization bodies that are around it. It is the fundamental place where companies like us, which invent technology, come and they share technology and really allow the industry to grow. And so the reason that we can talk to anyone anywhere around the world is because of that technology being organized that way. It's really rules that were written years ago by the Europeans and that have been, I think, successfully nurtured through that time period. So all of the efforts that you all make in continuing that to happen are very important, not just to the growth of Europe, but actually to the growth of the industry worldwide. Very, very important. One of the reasons why we want to make sure that we're key contributors to the European technology industry, both at the employment level but also at the policy level, is just one of the reasons why it was, I felt, important personally to come and to share perspectives with you. I have a lot of remarks that I could go into about examples. I'm sure we'll have an opportunity to talk about it. Suffice it to say, we are engaged in basically everything related to 5G and the application of 5G, actively involved with industry participants in Europe, from car manufacturers to healthcare, to remote delivery of education, to private networks, which are essentially an opportunity for new use cases that support the industry of the future to grow. We're actively working with partners here in Europe to continue to do that. And although I think people often talk about it in a very negative way, I think it's a tremendous opportunity to start at the early stage of the deployment of these technologies because that's when you really learn and create the businesses of the future. So anything that we can do to shape that perspective, help create policies that enable that to occur, we want to do that. We think it's very important for our business. We think it's very important for the industry in general. With that, I think what I'll do is maybe stop my prepared remarks, other than to say it's a great pleasure to be here. It's a very important time for the deployment of 5G. Europe is continuing to do, I think, a very good job. Extend that to millimeter wave, that'd be the one takeaway that I would suggest is very important. But I think our business model is quite suited for where 5G is going, and we look forward to sharing those perspectives and continuing the successful journey that we've had over 3G, 4G, and now 5G. So with that, thank you very much, and I look forward to talking with you more.