BlackBerry CEO John Giamatteo believes that artificial intelligence-driven robots represent a significant growth opportunity for this former smartphone giant.
This company, headquartered in Canada, was once one of the largest mobile phone manufacturers in the world, and has now completed a business transformation.
The QNX operating system of BlackBerry provides the underlying software for a series of features such as braking systems to partial semi-autonomous driving functions, and is currently embedded in over 275 million vehicles worldwide. However, the company is increasingly turning its attention beyond the automotive industry in order to seize the emerging physical AI markets.
On Monday, during an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer, Giamatteo stated: 'Although the products we sell today cannot be held in the palm of one's hand, they are everywhere. 275 million cars, robots, governments, medical equipment, supply chains. This is the new BlackBerry, and it is also what drives all our growth.'
According to Giamatteo, the robotics business has become one of the fastest-growing segments within QNX. Unlike generative AI which creates text and images, physical AI enables robots and other machines to interact with the real world. BlackBerry believes that the company has the opportunity to provide underlying software to help these machines operate safely and reliably, and to expand in this field by leveraging its experience accumulated in the automotive industry.
This opportunity is driving the continuous increase in the backlog of orders for BlackBerry. The company recently announced that the backlog of licensing fees for QNX has exceeded $1.2 billion, an increase of over $250 million from two quarters ago. Giamatteo attributes this growth to three factors: the transition of automobile manufacturers to more advanced computing systems, the expansion of software products, and the new demands brought about by physical AI applications.
Investors have noticed the company's transformation. The stock price of BlackBerry has risen by 142% in 2026, and prior to that, the company had experienced several years of difficulties. The company was once popular worldwide with handheld devices equipped with physical keyboards and dominated the smartphone market before the emergence of Apple's iPhone and other all-touchscreen devices. Known at that time as Research in Motion BlackBerry, its market value approached a peak of $85 billion in 2008, one year after the release of the first iPhone. Today, the market value of BlackBerry is approximately $5.4 billion.
Giamatteo also emphasized the collaboration between BlackBerry and NVIDIA, which initially began in the automotive industry. Giamatteo stated that NVIDIA has now "standardized QNX as its preferred platform for Halos Safety Stack." He said, "This has opened many doors and brought incredible opportunities, including AMR (autonomous mobile robots), autonomous forklifts, and scooters that transport pallets to docking stations."
