Qualcomm · Amazon · AMD · Microsoft · The Register
Amazon ropes Qualcomm into something, something AI, networking chips
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Multi-generation chip collab is more buzzwords than compute.
Key facts
- Qualcomm is also working on a new datacenter CPU called the C1000 that it claims will touch 5 GHz and scale to more than 250 cores when it arrives in the second half of 2028
- Amazon Web Services on Tuesday tapped mobile chip titan and aspiring datacenter SoC maker Qualcomm to develop "customized" silicon for AI inference and 1.6 Tbps optical networking gear to tie it all
- Similarly, AMD has built custom CPUs, like the Epyc 9V64H, for Microsoft
- While the AI inference side of the equation is about as clear as mud, Qualcomm’s networking contributions are far more obvious
Summary
Amazon Web Services on Tuesday tapped mobile chip titan and aspiring datacenter SoC maker Qualcomm to develop "customized" silicon for AI inference and 1.6 Tbps optical networking gear to tie it all together, though it offered few details. “Qualcomm is pleased to work with AWS on customized 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,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said in a canned statement that tells them absolutely nothing about the nature of the deal. While details remain vague, custom chip deals of this sort aren’t unusual for cloud providers like Amazon. Qualcomm’s involvement could involve the development of fully custom silicon, chiplets, or customized versions of its emerging datacenter accelerator portfolio. Detailed during Qualcomm's annual investor day earlier this summer, the new rack-scale AI platform swaps pricey high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for what the chip biz calls high-bandwidth compute.