Qualcomm mulling to give up on server chips

Word is going around that Qualcomm no longer wants to be in the server market. The chip designer aimed to compete with Intel in this market, by offering ARM-based chips for datacenters. Bloomberg reports Qualcomm is exploring two options; either it will shut down the server chip unit or it will sell it to a new owner.

While abandoning the effort would save Qualcomm the expense of designing some of the most expensive chips that the semiconductor industry produces, it would also be a retreat from the company’s goal of becoming less dependent on the slowing market for mobile-phone parts. Qualcomm’s management promised investors in January that the company would cut $1 billion in annual costs to improve profitability as part of an effort to fend off a hostile takeover bid by Broadcom Inc.

Qualcomm's Centriq 2400, the firm's first ARM-based server chip, hit the market in 2017.