Qualcomm Inc, the top maker of mobile phone processors, is entering the lucrative artificial intelligence (AI) data center market with new chips and computers, aiming to challenge Nvidia Corp in the fastest-growing part of the industry.
The AI200 will start shipping next year and be offered as either a standalone component, cards that can be added into existing machines or as part of a full rack of servers provided by Qualcomm. The first customer for the offerings will be Saudi Arabia’s AI start-up Humain, which plans to deploy 200 megawatts of computing based on the new chips starting next year.
Those debut products will be followed by the AI250 in 2027, the San Diego company said yesterday. If supplied only as a chip, the component could work inside gear that’s based on processors from Nvidia or other rivals. As a full server, it will compete with offerings from those chipmakers.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Qualcomm is trying to break into an area that’s reshaped the semiconductor industry, with hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on data centers to power AI software and services. The company said new memory-related capabilities and the power efficiency of designs that owe their roots to mobile device technology will attract customers, despite Qualcomm’s relatively late entry.
The new offerings are built around a neural processing unit, a type of chip that debuted in smartphones and is designed to speed up AI-related workloads without killing battery life. That capability has been developed further through Qualcomm’s move into laptop chips and has now been scaled up for use in the most powerful computers.
Under chief executive officer Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm is trying to diversify away from its dependence on smartphones, which are no longer increasing sales as quickly as they once did. The company has branched out into chips for cars and PCs, but is only now offering a product in what’s become the biggest single market for processors.
Qualcomm has been “quiet in this space, taking its time and building its strength,” Qualcomm senior vice president Durga Malladi said. The company is in talks with all of the biggest buyers of such chips on deploying server racks based on its hardware, he said.
Winning orders from companies such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Meta Platforms Inc would offer a significant new revenue source for Qualcomm.
The company has posted solid, profitable growth over the last two years, but investors have favored other tech stocks. Qualcomm shares have gained 10 percent this year, lagging behind a 40 percent surge by the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index.
Nvidia, which remains atop the AI computing world, is on target to generate more than US$180 billion in revenue from its data center unit this year, more than any other chipmaker – including Qualcomm – will get in total, according to estimates.
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