Qualcomm and Amazon on September 8, 2026 announced a multi-generation collaboration to co-design custom AI inference silicon and 1.6-terabit optical networking for Amazon Web Services data centers, tied to a warrant letting Amazon acquire up to 25 million Qualcomm shares at $161.26 for a total of about $4 billion. QCOM jumped as much as 10% on the day.
Custom Inference Silicon And 1.6T Optics
The agreement covers custom silicon purpose-built for AI inference — running trained models rather than training them — across multiple chip generations, plus optical connectivity extending to 1.6 Tbps. The optics draw on SerDes and optical DSP technology Qualcomm gained through its $2.4 billion acquisition of Alphawave Semi, which closed in December 2025. Qualcomm is also expanding its own use of AWS infrastructure, including Amazon Bedrock, to speed chip design cycles, so the two companies are now customer and vendor in both directions.
A $4 Billion Warrant, 3.75M Shares Vested Immediately
Qualcomm will issue Amazon a warrant to buy up to 25 million QCOM shares at $161.26 each, worth roughly $4 billion at grant. Of that, 3.75 million shares vest immediately, and the warrant expires in 2036. Remaining tranches vest against execution milestones and up to $60 billion of Qualcomm server chip and technology purchases. The structure mirrors Figure and Nscale's $3.5B compute pact and Anthropic's 14.8 GW compute plan — chip suppliers handing equity upside to customers to lock in years of committed demand.
Challenging A Broadcom-Marvell Duopoly
Custom AI ASIC design has been dominated by Broadcom and Marvell, which together handle the majority of hyperscaler co-design work. Amazon's existing Trainium chips, from its Annapurna Labs unit, lean on Marvell for parts of manufacturing and interconnect. Alphawave's SerDes and optical DSP is exactly the territory Qualcomm is now attacking, and analysts flagged Marvell as a potential loser if Amazon diversifies its custom-silicon suppliers. Rival Nvidia still dominates training workloads, but ASIC-based AI servers are projected to reach 27.8% of total AI server shipments in 2026, nearly triple the growth rate of general-purpose GPU servers.
Data-Center Revenue Push Ahead Of Apple Modem Cliff
Qualcomm has set a $15 billion data-center revenue target for fiscal 2029, up from roughly $5 billion projected for fiscal 2027, and lifted its overall non-handset fiscal 2029 goal to $40 billion. The AWS deal lands eight months before Apple's modem supply contract, long Qualcomm's largest single revenue source, expires in March 2027. Qualcomm has flagged two unnamed hyperscaler custom-silicon deals; Tuesday's announcement identifies one, with a template for how the second reveal is likely to land. Related coverage: Samsung SDS's $1.1B physical-AI push and Anthropic-Nscale's $45B Vera Rubin deal.
Reporting based on coverage from TheStreet, CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg and Qualcomm's press release.