Qualcomm inks deal with Amazon, set to build next-gen AI data center infrastructure

Qualcomm Technologies Inc. is collaborating with Amazon to enable customized silicon at scale for large-scale AI data centers, working together on AI inference. In addition, the companies are working on optical connectivity solutions extending up to 1.6T and future-generation solutions.“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 CEO, Qualcomm Incorporated. “Qualcomm is pleased to work with AWS on customized silicon and connectivity solutions, bringing decades of leadership in advanced processing and power-efficient compute, to deliver breakthrough performance and enable the next generation of AI infrastructure.” AI infrastructure with Qualcomm Technologies As AI workloads grow exponentially — driving unprecedented demand for compute, storage, networking and memory bandwidth, and energy-efficient infrastructure — the collaboration brings together Amazon’s comprehensive, secure, and price-performant AI infrastructure with Qualcomm Technologies’ leadership in power-efficient processing, silicon design and system-level integration, according to a press release. Qualcomm Technologies and Amazon will also collaborate on high-performance optical connectivity solutions designed to support the growing scale and bandwidth demands of AI infrastructure. The collaboration will leverage Qualcomm Technologies’ advanced SerDes and optical DSP technologies. As part of the expanded collaboration, Qualcomm Technologies plans to deepen its use of AWS AI infrastructure, including Amazon Bedrock, for electronic design automation (EDA) workloads, targeting a reduction in chip design cycles, as per the release.Modern AI data centers are increasingly becoming massive interconnected systems in which thousands of computing devices must exchange enormous volumes of data. As AI workloads scale, moving data between processors can become a significant bottleneck. High-performance optical connectivity solutions To address this challenge, Qualcomm and Amazon are also collaborating on high-performance optical connectivity solutions. The companies are targeting solutions extending up to 1.6 terabits per second, along with future generations of higher-bandwidth technology.The work will leverage Qualcomm’s expertise in SerDes and optical digital signal processing technologies. These technologies are critical to moving data rapidly between different components of large-scale computing systems.Amazon already has extensive experience developing its own data center silicon through AWS. The collaboration with Qualcomm adds another layer of semiconductor expertise, potentially allowing the companies to develop chips specifically tailored to the requirements of AI inference.Qualcomm says the collaboration will span multiple generations of customized silicon, suggesting that the companies are looking beyond a single product and instead intend to develop a longer-term technology roadmap.Get the latest in engineering, tech, space & science - delivered daily to your inbox.Prabhat, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, is a tech and defense journalist. While he enjoys writing on modern weapons and emerging tech, he has also reported on global politics and business. He has been previously associated with well-known media houses, including the International Business Times (Singapore Edition) and ANI.