Qualcomm inks $60bn custom AI chip deal with Amazon

Qualcomm has announced that it has struck a long-term partnership with Amazon, a deal worth up to $60 billion, to build custom inference chips designed for large-scale AI data centres. 

In addition, Qualcomm will also offer optical connectivity technology capable of delivering speeds of up to 1.6 terabits per second to help deliver faster connectivity between chips and servers within Amazon’s data centres. As part of this, Qualcomm said its advanced SerDes and optical DSP technologies will be used. 

“As AI demand accelerates, data centre infrastructure will require advances in both computing and connectivity to deliver greater performance with more efficiency,” Qualcomm president and CEO Cristiano Amon said. 

“Qualcomm is pleased to work with AWS on customised silicon and connectivity solutions, bringing decades of leadership in advanced processing and power-efficient compute, to deliver breakthrough performance and enable the next generation of AI infrastructure.”

The move comes as Qualcomm continues its plans to grow its role in the market beyond being a chip supplier for smartphones and towards the ever-growing AI data centre market.

Qualcomm’s data centre strategy 

“This announcement is a significant validation of data centre strategy, bringing a potential revenue opportunity of up to $60 billion over time,” Qualcomm CFO and COO Akash Palkhiwala said in a video statement. 

“More importantly, Amazon choosing Qualcomm is a strong endorsement of our technology, our roadmap and ability to build and delivery data centre solutions at scale.” 

As part of the expanded collaboration, Qualcomm said it plans to expand its use of AWS AI infrastructure, including Amazon Bedrock, for electronic design automation (EDA) workloads to reduce chip design cycles.

“This collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies builds on a strong foundation of partnership and reflects our shared commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” said AWS Vice President Prasad Kalyanaraman. 

“By working together on customised silicon and advanced connectivity, we’re delivering more performant, efficient, and cost-effective infrastructure for our customers.” 

Alongside this deal with Amazon, Qualcomm inked a similar multi-year data centre partnership with Meta in June. 

“We’re thrilled to build on our partnership with Meta, expanding from devices to data centre. And this is just the beginning,” Amon said at the time.

More Qualcomm coverage

• 7 reasons this Qualcomm-powered Lenovo laptop is perfect for executives
• Qualcomm’s diversification pays off with $10 billion quarterly revenue despite challenges
• Qualcomm CMO on AI and cloud: “Hybrid approach will win the day”
• AMD Ryzen AI 300 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips