Orange County’s chipmakers are showing strength as the economy recovers.
Fresh from its acquisition of a unit of Silicon Laboratories Inc., Irvine-based Skyworks Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq: SWKS) on July 29 posted revenue of just over $1.1 billion for the three-month period ended July 2. That was a 52% jump over the same period last year.
Chief Executive Liam Griffin said the company expects “continued momentum” as it looks to a revenue increase of 36%, in the mid-range of its projections for the current quarter.
One of the company’s biggest Wall Street boosters, CNBC’s Jim Cramer, remains a fan of the company and its exec team.
“Skyworks is just terrific. It can go up 20 points without a problem,” Cramer said last month. “Liam Griffin is doing a terrific job there.”
Electric Vehicle Push
OC’s third-largest publicly traded company, with a market value in the $31 billion range, generally counts on Apple for about half or more of its revenue.
While the Apple business keeps Skyworks strong, the wireless semiconductor company is seeking to diversify beyond its mainstay along with its emphasis on super-speed 5G communications
As part of that effort, Skyworks said July 26 it had completed its acquisition of the Infrastructure & Automotive business of Silicon Laboratories (Nasdaq: SLAB) in an all-cash transaction valued at $2.75 billion.
The purchase will accelerate Skyworks’ expansion into electric and hybrid vehicles, industrial and motor control, power supply, 5G wireless infrastructure and smart homes, among other areas.
Syntiant, Mobix, Movandi
Other OC chipmakers are also showing strength.
Irvine-based Syntiant Corp. said July 28 it has shipped more than 15 million NDP deep-learning chip units for voice-activated functions in electronic devices.
The company also said it has entered into an agreement with Renesas Electronics Corp. of Japan to develop advanced vision and voice technologies for use in such areas as self-checkout machines, security cameras, and video conference systems as well as smart appliances such as robotic cleaning devices.
“Voice-based user interfaces will make it possible for customers to deliver new user experiences that bring the next generation of innovative ideas from concept to reality,” said Syntiant CEO Kurt Busch.
Busch himself has joined the board of Irvine-based chipmaker Mobix Labs, which late last month introduced another product in its push for 5G communications—the “Ultra-Wideband mmWave 5G Beamformer.” Beamforming is a way of transmitting signals in 5G networks.
Mobix Labs Chief Executive Fabian Battaglia said the company’s CMOS technology “allows us to incorporate advanced functionality into a low-cost structure solution that can easily scale to meet the needs of any mmWave 5G system.”
Irvine’s Movandi, whose business includes designing and developing deep semiconductor technology powering 5G and beyond, is joining forces with network software provider Mavenir of Richardson, Texas. The companies are providing super-fast telecommunications in Ban Chang, billed as the first “smart city” in Thailand.
