Qualcomm and Amazon have partnered to co-develop AI chips and optical networking solutions.
Qualcomm has entered into a multi-generation partnership with Amazon to supply customized silicon and networking hardware for the hyperscaler’s data centers. The collaboration combines Amazon’s large-scale AI infrastructure with Qualcomm’s expertise in power-efficient processing, silicon design, and system-level integration.
The agreement also encompasses high-performance optical connectivity solutions engineered to meet the escalating scale and bandwidth requirements of AI workloads, with transmission speeds reaching up to 1.6T and eventually exceeding that threshold. These solutions will leverage Qualcomm Technologies’ SerDes and optical digital signal processing (DSP) technologies.
“As AI demand accelerates, data center infrastructure will require advances in both computing and connectivity to deliver greater performance with more efficiency,” said Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm. “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.”
Under the terms of the deal, Qualcomm plans to expand its utilization of AWS AI infrastructure, including Amazon Bedrock, to accelerate its own electronic design automation (EDA) workloads and reduce chip design cycle times. As part of the broader agreement, Qualcomm will issue warrants to acquire 25 million Amazon shares in a $4 billion investment. The issuance of these shares is contingent upon Amazon purchasing up to $60 billion worth of Qualcomm products.
“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 Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president at AWS. “By working together on customized silicon and advanced connectivity, we’re delivering more performant, efficient, and cost-effective infrastructure for our customers.”
The partnership positions Qualcomm to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the AI data center market. According to Silicon Analysts, Nvidia currently controls between 80% and 90% of the market, though that share is projected to decline to 75% this year, leaving AMD in second place.
Earlier this summer, Qualcomm refreshed its Dragonfly A1000 CPUs, Qualcomm High Bandwidth Compute (HBC), and AI300 inference accelerator, all engineered to maximize performance per watt and token throughput while lowering total cost of ownership. The company recently secured Meta as its first customer, with production slated to begin in 2028 as Meta expands its server fleet. Additionally, Qualcomm has joined Nvidia and AMD in signing a memorandum to supply the European Union’s AI gigafactories.
Optical networking remains a cornerstone of Amazon’s data center strategy. Earlier this year, the company invested billions of dollars in fiber-optic cable hardware from manufacturer Corning to support its expanding infrastructure needs.