Qualcomm and Amazon strike a multi-generation AI chip deal, and Amazon takes a warrant worth up to $60B
AWS gets a second custom-silicon inference track alongside Trainium; Qualcomm gets a warrant-linked stake structured around commercial purchase milestones -- a sign the AI chip supply chain is diversifying beyond Nvidia.
Qualcomm and AWS announced a multi-generation chip partnership on September 8, 2026 to co-develop customized silicon for AI inference and optical interconnects running up to 1.6 terabits per second, across multiple future generations of data-center products. Neither company disclosed product architecture, volumes, or delivery dates. As part of the deal, Amazon received a warrant to buy up to 25 million Qualcomm shares at $161.26 each (roughly a $4 billion stake, expiring in 2036), vesting in tranches tied to commercial purchase milestones, a structure that could be worth up to $60 billion to Qualcomm over time. Qualcomm shares rose about 9% on the news.
A smartphone company becoming an infrastructure company
Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkiwala put the company's own repositioning plainly: "we used to be a smartphone company, now we're an edge device company." The deal gives AWS a second custom-silicon inference track alongside its existing Trainium chips -- and gives Qualcomm a foothold in AI data-center infrastructure at a moment when its core mobile-chip business has matured.
Why the warrant structure matters
Tying Amazon's equity stake to commercial purchase milestones, rather than a flat payment, means Qualcomm's upside depends entirely on AWS buying the chips at volume, which ties both companies' incentives to deployment rather than a one-time announcement. For anyone modeling future GPU and ASIC pricing, or vendor-lock-in risk in AI infrastructure procurement, this is concrete evidence that the chip supply chain is diversifying beyond Nvidia, rather than talk about it.