AI and ML
Multi-generation chip collab is more buzzwords than compute
Amazon Web Services on Tuesday tapped mobile chip titan and aspiring datacenter SoC maker Qualcomm to develop "customized" silicon for AI inference and 1.6 Tbps optical networking gear to tie it all together, though it offered few details. Amazon's purchases and other commercial commitments under the agreement could total up to $60 billion in payments through September 2036.“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,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said in a canned statement that tells us absolutely nothing about the nature of the deal.While details remain vague, custom chip deals of this sort aren’t unusual for cloud providers like Amazon. The cloud giant has previously engaged Intel to develop customized versions of its Xeon processors. Similarly, AMD has built custom CPUs, like the Epyc 9V64H, for Microsoft.
Qualcomm’s involvement could involve the development of fully custom silicon, chiplets, or customized versions of its emerging datacenter accelerator portfolio.
