Newly appointed chip giant Qualcomm's CCO Jim Cathey tours China, being the ...

By Li Panpan

US chip giant Qualcomm's newly appointed chief commercial officer Jim Cathey is making a one month tour in China, addressing high-profile industry conferences, inspecting its newly expanded packaging plant in southern China's Wuxi, and meeting local employees, key Chinese customers as well as government officials. He is one of the few US chip company senior executives to make such a ground trip since the outbreak of the pandemic and series of US sanctions on Chinese technology companies.

In an exclusive interview with JW Insights, Jim Cathey said that it has been a fruitful trip, what he saw and happened in China excited him, helping himself gain a new understanding of the Chinese market. Jim Cathey was appointed CCO of Qualcomm this May, responsible for global sales, strategic partnership and business development.

Commenting on Qualcomm's RF360 Technology packaging plant in Wuxi, he said,"The factory is significant to Qualcomm's overall strategy." In recent years, Qualcomm has achieved remarkable results in the RF business, lifting its revenue growth.

Jim Cathey (right) with employees of Qualcomm's Wuxi RF facility

The Wuxi factory was established in 2000 as a joint venture between Siemens and Panasonic for filter products. After a serial of acquisitions and ownership changes, it became a subsidiary of Qualcomm in 2019, covering chip-scale filters, thin-film acoustic filters, and integrated modules. In May this year the Wuxi factory started a second phase of expansion dedicated to RF products and is scheduled for producing first sample products in the first quarter of 2023.

Jim Cathey said, "Although the pandemic has brought us some challenges in the past few years, we have found a way to overcome them with the strong support of the local government. The Wuxi entire team is capable of taking the whole business to the next level."

Before his stop in Wuxi, Jim Cathey attended two major national events in China last week - China International Import Expo (CIIE) held in Shanghai and the World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen. He delivered speeches on 5G and Qualcomm's innovative practices at the events.

“The greatest experience from participating in the CIIE and WIC is that I have seen many new products and technologies from companies in China and many other countries. In addition, Chinese government officials are very concerned about the market dynamics, growth, and changes. It's amazing," he said.

Jim Cathey at the Fifth China International Import Expo

"China is developing rapidly in the field of mobile Internet and mobile phones, especially in terms of ecosystem construction. At the same time, this advantage has expanded to other related industries, such as automobiles, industrial Internet, XR, VR, AR, and computing, with rapid development. All of these highlight the importance of the Chinese market to Qualcomm," he noted.

"At the same time, we see that Qualcomm in China plays a vital role in Qualcomm’s global development and the establishment of global ecological partnerships,” he added, “Qualcomm has also seen powerful development potential in the automotive industry, smart cities, smart transportation, industrial Internet, XR, VR, AR, and the computing industry in China.”