Qualcomm announced on September 8, 2026 a multi-generation collaboration with Amazon to build customized silicon for large-scale AI data centers, with AI inference as the focus. The release names customized silicon designed at scale, optical connectivity solutions extending up to 1.6T with a future generation planned, and advanced SerDes and optical DSP technology. Qualcomm also said it will deepen its own use of AWS AI infrastructure, including Amazon Bedrock, for electronic design automation workloads.
The financial terms are in an 8-K filed the same day. On September 3, 2026, Qualcomm issued Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC a warrant to acquire up to 25,000,000 Qualcomm shares at an exercise price of $161.26 per share, expiring September 3, 2036. The shares vest in tranches tied to commercial arrangements, binding purchase orders and actual purchases of Qualcomm server chip products, technology, systems and manufacturing services by Amazon, up to a maximum of $60 billion in payments. 3,750,000 shares vested on issuance based on initial purchase commitments.
This is a clear sign that the hyperscaler custom-chip market is widening beyond the incumbent design partners. AWS already designs its own Trainium and Inferentia accelerators; bringing in Qualcomm for inference silicon and high-speed optical connectivity gives Amazon another supplier, and gives Qualcomm, historically a phone-chip company, a large anchor customer in the data center. The warrant structure mirrors other recent AI supply deals in which a customer is paid in equity for committing volume.
What is verified is the warrant: its size, price, expiry and the $60 billion ceiling on the purchases that vest it. The $60 billion is a maximum vesting threshold over ten years, not a committed order, and neither the filing nor the release discloses chip specifications, volumes or delivery dates. How much Amazon actually buys is the number that will matter.