A new player wants to enter the server processor market. When announcing the latest business figures, CEO Cristiano Amon made it clear: Qualcomm is now designing suitable multi-core ARM CPUs.
The Oryon cores from the acquired company Nuvia will serve as the basis. Qualcomm is therefore delivering exactly what Nuvia originally planned. The start-up’s first product was an 80-core processor with 5-nanometer technology from chip contract manufacturer TSMC, which was never finalized.
The design is probably now obsolete. Neither with 80 cores nor with 5 nm structures does a newcomer attract anyone from behind the stove. Especially as Amon does not expect significant server sales until the 2028 fiscal year. Qualcomm’s fiscal year is one quarter ahead of the calendar.
Among the numerous companies interested in Qualcomm’s server processors is said to be an unnamed “leading hyperscaler”. Should a deal materialize, Amon is hoping for a so-called halo effect: if a market leader buys the CPUs, this could arouse the interest of other potential customers.
Chiplet know-how in purchasing
In June, Qualcomm announced its intention to acquire Alphawave Semi for 2.4 billion US dollars. Provided the antitrust authorities give their approval, Qualcomm is thus acquiring a great deal of chiplet know-how. Alphawave Semi specializes in combining various chiplets and interface technology, such as PCIe, UCIe, Ethernet and subsystems for high-bandwidth memory (HBM). This facilitates the development of high-end processors. Qualcomm intends to complete the acquisition in early 2026.
So far, ARM processors have primarily been used in data centers through in-house developments by Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, which are created together with Broadcom and MediaTek, for example. Ampere Computing is the only large company that sells ARM server processors independently, but is a niche player. The only known major customer is Oracle. Nvidia sells its CPUs, called Grace, primarily in a package with AI accelerators.
Stock market not pleased
Meanwhile, Qualcomm is doing well financially. Quarterly sales have grown by ten percent to just under 10.4 billion US dollars within a year. Thanks to higher margins, net profit increased even more – by 25 percent to almost 2.7 billion dollars. All divisions are growing, from processors and automotive hardware to modem technology and IoT.
Qualcomm expects sales of 10.3 to 11.1 billion dollars in the current quarter. However, the stock market is unhappy; the share price has fallen by almost five percent since the quarterly figures were published.
(mma)