Qualcomm returns to server processor market with Nuvia acquisition

Qualcomm appears to be planning a return to the server chip market. The company is reviewing its CPU offerings following its 2021 acquisition of chip design startup Nuvia. Nuvia was founded by three senior engineers from Apple’s chip manufacturing division with the original goal of developing ARM server chips (although it never released a product). After Qualcomm bought the company, it apparently refocused its new chip division from server chips to laptops and phones. Now, according to a new Bloomberg report , Nuvia’s original goal of making server chips will continue.

The report says Qualcomm is “seeking customers for a product related to last year’s purchase of chip startup Nuvia,”with Amazon Web Services being one of the first companies to “agreed to take a look at Qualcomm’s offerings.”Apple proved to the world that ARM chips can scale, and on laptops they have proven to be more efficient than x86 chips from Intel and AMD. Companies like Amazon have even begun making their own server chips based on licensed ARM processors.

In the server market, Qualcomm’s business will not be artificially supported by cellular licenses. It’s a non-processor company suddenly decides to sell processors and these products will have to compete on their own. Since potential customers like Amazon are already making ARM chips, Nuvia is 100% able to offer a CPU that is better than standard ARM designs.

Qualcomm last tried to break into the server market in 2017, when it built Microsoft’s Centriq server chips for a short year. This division was closed in the face of a failed hostile takeover by Broadcom. However, it was canceled under the previous CEO, and Qualcomm’s current boss, Cristiano Amon, wants to diversify Qualcomm’s product line. Nuvia CEO Gerard Williams, who was Apple’s chief processor architect for nearly a decade, is now Qualcomm’s senior vice president of engineering. If Nuvia’s chips are even half as successful as Apple’s industry-leading chips, Qualcomm could become a major competitor to server chips.

There is no timeline for when Qualcomm’s server chips will be available, but Qualcomm’s current schedule is to bring Nuvia technology to laptops “at the end of 2023.”