Qualcomm Returns to Server CPU Market with Nuvia Acquisition

Enlarge / A splash image for Nuvia from the company blog. nuvia

Qualcomm is apparently preparing a return to the server chip market. The company is revising its processor offerings after acquiring new chip design company Nuvia in 2021. Nuvia was founded by three high-ranking engineers from Apple's chip division, with the initial goal of designing server chips ARM (although it never launched a product). After Qualcomm bought the company, it apparently pivoted its new chip division from server chips to laptops and phones. Now, according to a new report from Bloomberg, Nuvia's original focus on building server chips will be allowed to continue.

The report says Qualcomm is "seeking customers for a product stemming from last year's purchase of chip startup Nuvia" with Amazon Web Services as one of the first companies that "agreed to take a peek take a look at Qualcomm's offerings". Apple has proven to the world that ARM chips can scale, and in laptops they have proven to be more efficient than x86 chips from Intel and AMD. Companies like Amazon have even started manufacturing their in-house server chips based on ARM's licensed processor designs.

Doing better than ARM's standard processor designs will be the real challenge for Qualcomm. Despite having a virtual monopoly on high-end Android phone processors, Qualcomm isn't really a CPU company. Qualcomm's SoCs feature processors sourced directly from ARM, as do many other vendors such as Mediatek, Samsung and Huawei's HiSilicon. What keeps Qualcomm on top is all the non-CPU parts, primarily its hyper-aggressive licensing around its modems and cellular patients. Qualcomm has enough core cellular patents that you need a license from them to sell a phone no matter what, and by bundling a cheaper patent license with its own chips, Qualcomm can squeeze out the competition. Qualcomm does a good job of designing GPUs and modems, but it has never paid much attention to the CPU part of its SoC offering and is currently several generations behind market leader Apple.

In the server market, Qualcomm's business will not be artificially supported by cellular licenses. This is a non-CPU company that suddenly decides to sell CPUs, and those products will have to compete on their own merits. With potential customers like Amazon already making ARM chips, it is 100% incumbent on Nuvia to deliver a better processor than standard ARM designs.

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

There is no timeline for the availability of Qualcomm's server chips, but Qualcomm's current timeline calls for Nuvia technology to appear in laptops in "late 2023".