Qualcomm to make data centre processors that connect to Nvidia chips
Qualcomm on Monday said it will make custom data centre central processing units, or CPUs, that use technology from Nvidia to connect to Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips. Nvidia's chips are dominant in the AI market but always paired with CPUs, a market traditionally dominated by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.
Nvidia has jumped into the CPU market itself, designing a chip using technology from Arm Holdings to develop its own "Grace" CPU. On Monday, Qualcomm said it would return to the data centre CPU market.
In the 2010s, Qualcomm began developing an Arm-based CPU that it tested with Meta Platforms, but curtailed those efforts amid cost cuts and legal challenges. But after acquiring a team of ex-Apple chip designers in 2021, Qualcomm has quietly revived those efforts, again holding discussions with Meta about a data centre CPU.
Qualcomm last week confirmed that it has a letter of understanding with Saudi Arabian AI firm Humain to develop a custom data centre CPU.
On Monday, Qualcomm said that its future chips would use technology from Nvidia that will help them communicate quickly with Nvidia's graphics processors (GPUs), which are the mainstay of its AI chip portfolio.
"With the ability to connect our custom processors to Nvidia's rack-scale architecture, we're advancing a shared vision of high-performance energy-efficient computing to the data centre," Cristiano Amon said on Monday.
Published - May 19, 2025 01:38 pm IST