Alphabet built a stake worth nearly $548 million in Qualcomm during the third quarter as the chipmaker expanded into AI data-centre processors, Reuters reported on 6 November. The holding amounted to nearly 3 million shares at 30 September and appeared in a regulatory filing of Alphabet’s investments, The Next Web reported. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is an existing Qualcomm partner.
Key points
- Alphabet’s Qualcomm holding was worth nearly $548 million at the end of the third quarter.
- Qualcomm expects data-centre chip revenue to reach $15 billion by 2029.
- A September agreement allows Amazon to buy up to $60 billion of Qualcomm AI data-centre chips and related products.
- Alphabet also increased its SpaceX holding to about 555 million shares from 551.2 million.
Qualcomm’s $15 billion data-centre target
Qualcomm expects its data-centre chip revenue to reach $15 billion by 2029, a forecast previously reported by AI Affairs. Its expansion into that business follows a weak period for smartphones, the market for which it is best known. Qualcomm has spent the past year approaching cloud service providers with custom AI processors as those companies develop their own chips and seek alternatives to Nvidia’s products, Reuters reported.
Qualcomm missed Wall Street’s expectations for quarterly smartphone-chip sales and attributed the shortfall to weak demand, The Next Web reported. The company’s shares fell more than 9 per cent on 5 November after its September-quarter results and amid a wider market selloff. They rose 3 per cent in trading before the US market opened on 6 November following the stake disclosure, according to Reuters.
In October 2025, Qualcomm introduced the AI200 and AI250, which The Next Web described as its first chips designed to run AI models in data centres. The company has also signed a custom AI chip agreement with ByteDance, the owner of TikTok. Those products and deals put Qualcomm in a market that Google also supplies through its own data-centre AI chips, known as TPUs.
Amazon’s $60 billion purchase provision
Qualcomm’s September agreement with Amazon permits the cloud company to purchase up to $60 billion of AI data-centre chips and related products. The arrangement also included warrants allowing Amazon to buy Qualcomm stock. The purchase provision sets a ceiling on what Amazon may buy, rather than a stated amount of sales Qualcomm has already made.
Microsoft and Meta have placed orders for Qualcomm data-centre processors. Alongside the Amazon agreement and the ByteDance deal, those orders form part of Qualcomm’s effort to establish a business beyond smartphone chips. The $15 billion revenue figure remains Qualcomm’s expectation for 2029, rather than a result from those arrangements.
Alphabet and Qualcomm’s existing work
Alphabet’s investment follows several commercial links between the companies. Qualcomm processors power many phones running Google’s Android operating system. They are also used in Googlebook, Google’s premium laptop line-up, according to Reuters.
The companies agreed in 2024 to develop chips and software for automotive AI applications. Their work on AI agents for cars combines Google Cloud’s Gemini models with Qualcomm’s vehicle platform, The Next Web reported. Those projects sit alongside Qualcomm’s move into data-centre processors, where Google designs TPUs for its own facilities.
The filing also covered another Alphabet investment. Its position in SpaceX rose to about 555 million shares at 30 September from 551.2 million previously. Google first invested in SpaceX in 2015 alongside Fidelity in a $1 billion funding round.
