Qualcomm Partners with Meta and Amazon for AI Data Centers

Qualcomm is pivoting from a smartphone chip supplier to a data center partner through new strategic agreements with Meta Platforms and Amazon. The company is leveraging its Dragonfly platform, which includes the Dragonfly C1000 server CPU and AI300 AI accelerator, to enter the cloud infrastructure market. Meta Platforms has signed a multi-generation agreement for CPUs to power its next wave of servers, with production scheduled to begin in the second half of 2028.

In a separate collaboration, Qualcomm and Amazon are co-developing custom chips and high-speed optical links for Amazon Web Services data centers. This partnership includes warrants allowing an Amazon entity to purchase up to 25 million Qualcomm shares, linked to potential chip purchases totaling $60 billion.

Simultaneously, the company is adapting High Bandwidth Compute (HBC) technology from data centers for use in Snapdragon mobile platforms. This dedicated coprocessor aims to allow smartphones to run larger AI models locally with higher speeds and lower power consumption. Qualcomm plans to showcase this technology at MWC Barcelona in March 2027, with future expansions into laptops, smart glasses, and vehicles.

Qualcomm also introduced the Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 platform, which doubles the AI capability of its predecessor while reducing power consumption by up to 40%. This platform is designed to turn earbuds and smart glasses into standalone AI assistants that connect directly to cloud services via Wi-Fi 6E, reducing their reliance on smartphones.