- Qualcomm and Amazon will develop customized silicon for large-scale AWS AI data centers, with AI inference as the primary workload. <sup>[1]</sup>
- The companies will collaborate on optical connectivity solutions extending to 1.6T, using Qualcomm SerDes and optical DSP technologies. <sup>[1]</sup>
- Amazon received a warrant for up to 25 million Qualcomm shares at an exercise price of $161.26 per share. <sup>[2]</sup>
- Warrant vesting is tied to commercial arrangements, binding orders and purchases of Qualcomm server products and services, up to $60 billion in payments through September 2036. <sup>[2]</sup>
Qualcomm Technologies and Amazon announced a multi-generation collaboration to develop customized silicon for large-scale AWS AI data centers, targeting AI inference workloads, Qualcomm said September 8, 2026. The companies will also develop optical connectivity solutions extending to 1.6T and future-generation technologies. [1]
Qualcomm said the collaboration combines Amazon’s AI infrastructure with its own power-efficient processing, silicon design and system-level integration capabilities. [1]
A related Qualcomm Form 8-K discloses that Amazon received a warrant to acquire up to 25 million Qualcomm common shares at $161.26 per share. The warrant expires September 3, 2036, and its vesting is linked to commercial arrangements, binding purchase orders and actual purchases of Qualcomm server chip products, technology, systems and manufacturing services. [2]
The Silicon Collaboration #
The companies did not disclose product names, manufacturing partners, process nodes, shipment volumes or a deployment timetable for the customized inference silicon. Qualcomm described the program as spanning multiple product generations and said the work is intended to address compute, storage, networking, memory-bandwidth and energy-efficiency requirements in AI infrastructure. [1]
The announcement follows Qualcomm’s earlier disclosure that it was working with an unnamed hyperscaler on custom data-center silicon, with initial shipments slated for December. [3]
The Optical Layer #
The optical portion of the collaboration will use Qualcomm’s SerDes and optical digital signal processor technologies to support high-bandwidth interconnects inside Amazon’s data-center networks. Qualcomm said the work includes solutions extending to 1.6T as well as future generations. [1]
Qualcomm’s announcement did not specify whether AWS will deploy the technology in pluggable optical modules, near-package optics, co-packaged optics or another form factor. It also did not disclose expected production volume or a commercial launch schedule. [1]
Commercial Terms #
The SEC filing provides the clearest financial detail disclosed with the collaboration. Amazon received the warrant on September 3, 2026, with 3.75 million shares vested upon issuance based on initial purchase commitments. The remaining shares vest in tranches tied to specified commercial milestones and purchases. [2]
The warrant allows cashless exercise and carries customary adjustments and registration rights. The filing describes the $60 billion figure as the maximum amount of payments tied to the vesting conditions, rather than an upfront contract value. [2]
AWS Design Infrastructure #
Qualcomm also plans to deepen its use of AWS AI infrastructure, including Amazon Bedrock, for electronic-design-automation workloads. Qualcomm said the objective is to reduce chip-design cycle times, making AWS both a customer for the resulting infrastructure products and a platform used in their development. [1]
Companies mentioned #
Further sources #
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