Chip startup Ampere teams up with Qualcomm for AI server push

AMPERE Computing, the chip startup backed by Oracle, is teaming up with Qualcomm to make equipment for artificial intelligence computing – an area currently dominated by Nvidia.

The two companies are working together to build computers based on Ampere’s microprocessors and Qualcomm’s accelerator chips, the semiconductors that help AI models handle a flood of data. Ampere also plans to release a processor with an industry-leading 256 cores next year, according to a statement on Thursday (May 16).

Like many chipmakers right now, the two companies are vying for a bigger share of the billions of US dollars being poured into AI infrastructure. Most of that money is currently being spent on Nvidia’s products.

Ampere processors will be paired with Qualcomm’s AI 100 Ultra products in servers built by Super Micro Computer The chip companies have been working on hardware and software to make the new offering work smoothly and efficiently at what’s known as AI inference – work such as image or voice recognition.

For those not wanting to pay the heavy price for Nvidia gear, which is often on back order, the new server will offer “five times better performance per US dollar,” according to Ampere’s chief product officer, Jeff Wittich.

Separately, Ampere is working on standards that allow the combination of different companies’ chips on single pieces of silicon, Wittich said. That will let customers more closely specify the products they want and avoid being tied to single suppliers, he said. Such products might include Ampere processors and Qualcomm accelerators on the same chip, something that increases efficiency and performance.

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Ampere’s founder, former Intel executive Renee James, believes that her products are the answer to a growing problem in data centres: out-of-control increases in power consumption driven by AI-related infrastructure.

“The current path is unsustainable,” she said in a statement. The industry needs to “build environmentally sustainable new data centres that fit the available power on the grid.” BLOOMBERG