Qualcomm returns to the CPU battlefield, launching custom chips directly connected to NVIDIA GPUs
Qualcomm announced its return to the CPU market, launching a customized CPU designed specifically for data centers, deeply integrated with NVIDIA's AI chips. The new CPU will utilize NVIDIA's NVLink Fusion technology to achieve high-speed interconnection with GPUs, optimizing chip-to-chip communication efficiency under AI workloads. This move provides NVIDIA with a new hardware partner and may reshape the combination model of CPUs and GPUs. At the same time, Qualcomm signed a cooperation agreement with Saudi Humain Company to jointly build data centers, focusing on specific regions and vertical fields
According to Zhitong Finance APP, chip giant Qualcomm (QCOM.US) has announced its return to the data center central processing unit (CPU) market, launching a customized CPU designed specifically for data centers to deeply integrate with NVIDIA (NVDA.US) artificial intelligence (AI) chips. This strategic move marks Qualcomm's new push into the cloud computing market based on its advantages in mobile chips.
It has been disclosed that Qualcomm's new CPU will utilize NVIDIA's NVLink Fusion technology to achieve direct high-speed interconnection with NVIDIA GPUs. Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm Technologies, stated: "By integrating our custom processors into NVIDIA's rack-level system architecture, we are extending the vision of high-performance, low-power computing into the data center space." This technological integration will significantly optimize inter-chip communication efficiency under AI workloads, addressing the bottleneck issues of CPU and GPU collaborative computing in traditional architectures.
For a long time, NVIDIA GPUs in data centers have primarily been used in conjunction with Intel (INTC.US) and AMD (AMD.US) CPUs. However, with NVIDIA's launch of the Arm architecture-based "Grace" CPU last year and its entry into the CPU market, competition in the data center computing ecosystem has become increasingly fierce. Qualcomm's entry not only provides NVIDIA with a new hardware partner option but may also reshape the "CPU + GPU" computing combination model.
It is noteworthy that Qualcomm recently signed a cooperation agreement with Saudi artificial intelligence company Humain to jointly build data centers. This collaboration not only provides early application scenarios for Qualcomm's new CPU but also suggests that its market strategy may focus on specific regions and vertical fields, avoiding direct confrontation with Intel and AMD
