BlackBerry lifts annual revenue forecast on strength in automotive software business

Sept 24 : BlackBerry raised its full-year revenue forecast on Thursday after its QNX software business reported record quarterly revenue, driven by growth in automotive and new design wins.

US-listed shares of the company rose about 3 per cent in premarket trading.

Revenue at BlackBerry's QNX division, which develops software for safety-critical systems in vehicles, robotics, medical devices and industrial applications, rose 27 per cent to $80.3 million in the second quarter ended August 31.

Automotive remains the core of BlackBerry's business, with the company saying the shift toward software-defined vehicle architectures is expanding both the number of addressable vehicles and the amount of QNX software that can be deployed in each vehicle. Automakers using the company's QNX software include Audi, General Motors, Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz.

QNX software is being deployed across digital cockpit, advanced driver assistance and body-control applications, BlackBerry CEO John Giamatteo told Reuters in an interview.

"We're supporting all the different domains of the car. That's one of the reasons why we're seeing some of the explosive growth," Giamatteo said.

The company now expects full-year 2027 revenue between $616 million and $636 million, compared with its prior forecast of $594 million to $621 million.

Coretura, a joint venture between Volvo Group and Daimler Truck, has selected BlackBerry's QNX software for its next-generation commercial vehicles, in a deal that could add more than $100 million to QNX's royalty backlog, BlackBerry said, adding that the deal is its largest QNX contract to date.

Second-quarter revenue came in at $163.3 million, beating analysts' estimates of $145.6 million, according to data compiled by LSEG.

BlackBerry expects third-quarter revenue to be between $143 million and $154 million, compared with estimates of $149.6 million.