It is a chilly climate for chip manufacturers, even those in high-growth, strategic areas such as 5G devices or infrastructure. The global economic crisis and ongoing supply chain disruptions are creating challenging business conditions, and these are worsened by the geopolitical tensions between the USA and China, and their allies. For Qualcomm, the pressures are piling up. It did, nonetheless, report 22% year-on-year revenue growth for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2022, but it was downbeat in its future guidance. There was some short-term joy in its assurance that it would continue to supply the bulk of the iPhone’s modems in 2023, despite Apple’s efforts to wean itself off Qualcomm chips. But that leaves the cloud of potential loss of…