Amazon and Qualcomm partner on AI chips for data centers

Qualcomm Technologies announced in San Diego on September 8, 2026, an extensive multi-generation collaboration with Amazon to manufacture customized silicon at scale for large artificial intelligence data centers, focusing engineering resources directly on hardware for machine learning inference. Engineers from both companies are concurrently developing optical connectivity hardware that reaches speeds of up to 1.6T alongside subsequent networking iterations.

The partnership pairs the cloud infrastructure of Amazon with the power-efficient processing, semiconductor design, and system-level integration of Qualcomm Technologies as escalating data workloads drive unprecedented technical demands for computing memory, storage capacity, and electrical grid efficiency across commercial installations.

Both companies plan to assemble high-performance optical links to manage the accelerating bandwidth requirements across cloud server facilities. Work begins on physical interconnects. The resulting hardware relies on specialized serializer-deserializer SerDes architectures and digital signal processor DSP units developed by Qualcomm Technologies.

Read also: Why Amazon became a safer option than Nvidia in the AI ​​race

Qualcomm Technologies will simultaneously expand its usage of AWS server capacity and the Amazon Bedrock platform for electronic design automation workloads to shorten semiconductor design schedules.

Cristiano Amon, president and chief executive officer of Qualcomm Incorporated, stated that accelerating computational demands require simultaneous improvements in processing power and connectivity bandwidth to elevate operational efficiency. Amon added: “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.”

Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president at AWS, said: “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. By working together on customized silicon and advanced connectivity, we’re delivering more performant, efficient, and cost-effective infrastructure for our customers.”

Understand the case: Amazon surpasses US$3 trillion in market value with boost from artificial intelligence

The semiconductor supplier operates development programs that scale computing functions from consumer devices to massive cloud installations. Qualcomm has engineered communications systems and processors for more than four decades. Its current engineering targets low-power computing architectures and network connections deployed in worldwide commercial products.

Qualcomm Incorporated retains ownership of core patents through its QTL licensing unit, while subsidiary Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. directs engineering operations and the QCT chip segment. Commercial lines including Snapdragon hardware, Qualcomm Dragonwing, and Qualcomm Dragonfly carry corporate trademark registrations governed by parent company Qualcomm Incorporated.