Qualcomm Stock Soars -- Amazon Strikes Major AI Chip Partnership

Custom AI chips and faster data-center connectivity sit at the center of a new collaboration between Qualcomm and Amazon, with the companies targeting growing demand for AI inference. Qualcomm stock jumped 7% on Tuesday after it said it issued Amazon a warrant that gives the e-commerce company the right to buy up to 25 million shares of Qualcomm. The warrant sets the purchase price at $161.26 per share and links the arrangement to up to $60 billion in business under the collaboration, according to a regulatory filing. The companies will develop custom chips for AI inference, which involves running trained AI models. They also plan to develop high-speed optical connectivity technologies, including solutions capable of reaching up to 1.6 terabits per second, to support increasing bandwidth requirements in AI data centers. Qualcomm will also expand its use of Amazon Web Services' artificial intelligence services and infrastructure for chip-design workloads. The companies expect the expanded use of AWS resources to help shorten chip development cycles. The partnership gives Qualcomm a broader role in AI data-center infrastructure while expanding Amazon's collaboration with the semiconductor company on custom