Qualcomm Lands $60 Billion Amazon Deal for Custom AI Chips and Optical Networking
14 Sources
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Amazon ropes Qualcomm into something, something AI, networking chips
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. Amazon's purchases and other commercial commitments under
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Qualcomm, Amazon to develop custom chips for AI data centers
Sept 8 (Reuters) - Qualcomm (QCOM.O), opens new tab announced a collaboration with Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab on Tuesday, spanning several product generations, to develop custom chips for the e-commerce giant's AI data centers. Shares of the San Diego, California-based chipmaker rose more than
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Qualcomm hands Amazon $4B of warrants to build custom silicon for AWS
The deal ties multiple generations of custom silicon to AWS, while Europe's own data centre processor is still in bring-up and headed for a supercomputer Qualcomm has issued Amazon warrants over 25 million shares worth about $4B, vesting against commercial milestones and up to $60B of server chip
[4]
Qualcomm lands Amazon deal to build custom AI data center chips
The partnership focuses on inference workloads and spans multiple generations of customized silicon for AWS infrastructure Qualcomm $QCOM announced a partnership with Amazon $AMZN Web Services on Tuesday to develop custom chips for AI data center infrastructure, sending Qualcomm stock up 10%. The
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Qualcomm inks AI chip, optical networking deal with Amazon
Qualcomm Inc. today announced that it has won a contract to supply Amazon.com Inc. with artificial intelligence chips and networking hardware. The deal is part of a broader partnership that also extends to other areas. Qualcomm has issued a stock warrant that will enable Amazon to buy up to 25
[6]
Qualcomm Shares Climb on Amazon AI Infrastructure Deal
Get personalized, AI-powered answers built on 27+ years of trusted expertise. Qualcomm's stock is getting a lift after the chipmaker announced a new partnership with Amazon. Shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) were up about 3% Tuesday afternoon after the firm announced it was collaborating with Amazon
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Qualcomm-Amazon AI deal: Why the chipmaker's stock surged - Qualcomm lands major Amazon AI deal
Qualcomm-Amazon AI deal: Why the chipmaker's stock surged 1/12 Qualcomm lands major Amazon AI deal Qualcomm has struck a long-term partnership with Amazon to develop custom chips for large-scale AI data centres, marking a major step in its push beyond smartphones and into the rapidly growing AI
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Qualcomm Stock Rises After Multi-Generation AI Chip Deal With Amazon - Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM)
Qualcomm Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) shares are trading higher Tuesday after the company announced a multi-generation product collaboration with Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) to build next-generation AI data center infrastructure. * Qualcomm stock is among today's top performers. Why is QCOM stock
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Qualcomm strikes AI chip deal with Amazon, offers right to buy about $4 billion in stock
The deal also highlights increasingly intertwined financing in the AI boom, with Qualcomm granting Amazon warrants worth about $4 billion that vest with product purchases and allow the cloud giant to buy shares at a fixed price of $161.26 apiece, according to a regulatory filing. Qualcomm on
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Qualcomm at Goldman Sachs conference: Amazon deal boosts data center push By Investing.com
Tuesday, 08 September 2026 -- Qualcomm (QCOM) used the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference 2026 to outline a broader shift away from its smartphone roots, led by a new partnership with Amazon and faster growth in automotive and other markets. Management struck a confident tone, but
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Qualcomm stock surges 9.5% on Amazon AI deal & 25M share warrant By Investing.com
Investing.com -- Qualcomm Technologies (NASDAQ: QCOM) shares spiked 9.5% following the announcement of a multi-generational collaboration with Amazon to build customized silicon and ultra-fast optical connectivity solutions for AI data centers. Under the agreement, Qualcomm will issue a warrant to
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Qualcomm, Amazon Sign AI Infrastructure Partnership Deal -- Update
Qualcomm Technologies and Amazon have agreed to collaborate on developing customized silicon and high-bandwidth optical interconnectivity for Amazon's artificial intelligence data centers. The collaboration brings together Amazon's comprehensive, secure AI infrastructure with Qualcomm
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Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Amazon.com, Inc. Announce Multi-Generational Product Collaboration to Build Next-Generation AI Data Center Infrastructure
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced a multi-generation collaboration with Amazon.com, Inc. to enable customized silicon at scale for large-scale AI data centers, working together on AI inference. In addition, the companies are working on optical connectivity solutions extending up to 1.6T and
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Qualcomm, Amazon Sign AI Infrastructure Partnership Deal
Qualcomm Technologies and Amazon have agreed to collaborate on developing customized silicon and high-bandwidth optical interconnectivity for Amazon's artificial intelligence data centers. The collaboration brings together Amazon's comprehensive, secure AI infrastructure with Qualcomm
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Qualcomm announced a multi-generational partnership with Amazon Web Services to develop custom silicon for AI inference and 1.6 Tbps optical networking hardware. The deal includes $4 billion in warrants tied to up to $60 billion in purchases through 2036, marking Qualcomm's major push into AI data centers alongside its existing Meta partnership.
Qualcomm Secures Major AWS Partnership Worth Up to $60 Billion
Qualcomm announced a sweeping multi-generational partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to develop custom AI chips and optical networking solutions for AI data centers
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. The Qualcomm Amazon partnership includes a complex financial arrangement where Amazon receives warrants to purchase 25 million Qualcomm shares at $161.26 each, representing a $4 billion position3
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. These warrants vest in tranches tied to commercial milestones and Amazon purchasing up to $60 billion of Qualcomm server chips and technology through September 20361
. Qualcomm's stock surged more than 9% in premarket trading following the announcement, offering relief after the stock slipped about 1% this year due to weaker smartphone demand2
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Source: SiliconANGLE
Custom Silicon for AWS Targets AI Inference Market
The collaboration centers on developing custom AI chips optimized specifically for AI inference workloads, a fast-growing market that has become a key battleground among semiconductor firms
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. While Qualcomm offered few concrete details about the custom silicon for AWS, the arrangement could involve fully custom silicon, chiplets, or customized versions of its emerging datacenter accelerator portfolio1
. Qualcomm's approach includes its rack-scale AI platform that swaps expensive high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for what the company calls high-bandwidth compute, achieving higher effective memory bandwidth using cheaper LPDDR memory by shifting compute to the memory's base die1
. This technology is expected to launch next year as part of Qualcomm's AI250-series Dragonfly rack systems.Dragonfly C1000 CPU and Expanding Data Center Ambitions
Qualcomm is simultaneously developing the Dragonfly C1000 CPU, which will scale to more than 250 cores and reach speeds of 5 GHz when it arrives in the second half of 2028
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. The company unveiled this datacenter processor in June with Meta as a launch customer from 2028, setting an ambitious $15 billion data center revenue target for fiscal 20293
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. The AWS agreement gives Qualcomm a second major hyperscaler partner alongside Meta, both of which commit capital expenditures on AI infrastructure running into hundreds of billions of dollars annually4
. This represents a significant step for Qualcomm as it works to establish itself as a supplier of AI data centers chips alongside Nvidia, leveraging its reputation built on smartphone and mobile handset processors.
Source: The Register
High-Speed Optical Connectivity Addresses Infrastructure Bottlenecks
Beyond processors, Qualcomm will supply Amazon with 1.6 Tbps optical networking hardware using its serializer-deserializers (SerDes) and optical digital signal processors (DSPs), likely acquired through its purchase of Alphawave Semi late last year
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. This high-speed optical connectivity component addresses a major supply chain hurdle for scaling AI infrastructure, particularly as compute scales from a rack with a few dozen accelerators to hundreds or thousands spanning multiple racks1
. AWS vice president Prasad Kalyanaraman stated that "by working together on customized silicon and advanced connectivity, we're delivering more performant, efficient, and cost-effective infrastructure for our customers"5
.Amazon's Expanding Custom Silicon Strategy
Amazon has been aggressively expanding its custom silicon ambitions across multiple fronts. CEO Andy Jassy raised the prospect of selling chip racks to outside customers in his April 2026 shareholder letter, noting annualized chip revenue at roughly $20 billion across its Trainium, Graviton, and Nitro product lines and suggesting external sales could push that toward $50 billion annually
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. Amazon's senior vice president Peter DeSantis confirmed the company is in talks to sell its Trainium AI chips to other companies' data centers, positioning Amazon as a direct peer to Nvidia in chip development4
. Optical networking remains a major focus, with Amazon agreeing to buy billions of dollars worth of hardware from Corning in June and detailing an internally developed network design dubbed RNG that uses fiber-optic cables in a semi-random configuration5
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Source: Benzinga
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Reciprocal Benefits Through Amazon Bedrock Integration
The customer-supplier relationship runs both ways in this arrangement. Qualcomm plans to expand its use of Amazon Bedrock, AWS's managed AI service, for electronic design automation workloads
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. Electronic design automation applications help engineers create and test chip blueprints, and Qualcomm expects this initiative to speed up its product development efforts and shorten development cycles2
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.Market Implications and Competitive Landscape
Bank of America expects the server processor market to more than double from $27 billion in 2025 to $60 billion by 2030, with Nvidia, Intel, and AMD all pushing aggressively into the space
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. Qualcomm's deal with Amazon demonstrates how equity arrangements are becoming ordinary in AI infrastructure deals, with Amazon being paid in warrants to become a customer3
. This multi-generational partnership spanning through 2036 signals long-term strategic alignment between the companies as AI inference workloads continue growing. Watch for how Qualcomm's customized versions of its AI250-series chips and the Dragonfly C1000 perform against established players, and whether the company can meet its ambitious $15 billion datacenter revenue target by fiscal 2029.References
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