Qualcomm and Amazon Web Services have signed a multi-generation collaboration agreement to develop customized silicon and optical connectivity for AWS’s AI data center infrastructure, marking one of Qualcomm’s most significant moves yet into the data-center chip market long dominated by Nvidia.
Custom Inference Chips and High-Speed Optical Links
Under the agreement announced September 8, 2026, Qualcomm Technologies will work with AWS to design customized silicon focused on AI inference workloads, alongside advanced optical connectivity solutions supporting interconnect speeds up to 1.6 terabits per second and future generations beyond that. “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 chief executive of Qualcomm, adding that the company aims to bring “decades of leadership in advanced processing and power-efficient compute” to AWS’s AI infrastructure.
A Warrant Tied to Billions in Future Purchases
As part of the deal, Qualcomm issued Amazon a warrant to acquire up to 25 million shares of Qualcomm common stock, vesting as AWS makes purchases under the agreement, up to a cap of $60 billion over a ten-year term. The warrant carries an exercise price of $161.26, roughly 4.4% below Qualcomm’s September 4 closing price, with 3.75 million shares vesting immediately at signing. Qualcomm shares rose sharply following the announcement. The agreement follows Qualcomm’s introduction of its AI200 and AI250 data-center inference chips last year and reflects the company’s broader push to diversify beyond smartphone processors into AI infrastructure, an area where hyperscalers including Amazon, Google and Microsoft have increasingly sought custom silicon to reduce reliance on Nvidia.
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