Qualcomm has announced a strategic partnership with Meta under which it will provide CPUs for its growing data centre network.

The California-based semiconductor manufacturer is expected to provide its Dragonfly C1000 CPU to power the next generation of Meta’s server fleet, with production beginning in the second half of 2028.

The news, announced at an investor meeting Wednesday, coincided with the launch of the C1000 that forms the core of Qualcomm’s new data centre strategy. In the presentation Tony Pialis, executive vice president and general manager for data centres at Qualcomm, claimed the chips offer twice as much performance per watt and 30 per cent more speed than those of competitors.

Qualcomm already holds a strong position in the smartphone market, providing 23 per cent of all chipsets in the industry, according to data from Counterpoint Research. Now it is looking to expand its non-handset revenue, nearly doubling its target to $40 billion in fiscal year 2029.

Data centres are a key piece of this push, with the company intending to reach $15 billion in revenue in the same period. Alongside the C1000 CPU, the company unveiled high bandwidth compute, a new inference accelerator, and new connectivity products.

Meta will be the first customer for Qualcomm’s new line, which its chief executive described as a significant validation of its approach.

"We're excited to continue partnering with Qualcomm Technologies as they design the next generation of CPUs for Meta," said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Meta. "Along with our other compute investments, we're quickly building the infrastructure we need to deliver personal superintelligence to everyone in the world.”

Meta’s data centre buildout is continuing steadily; earlier in the month it announced a partnership with Reliance Industries to build its first data centre in India following the April opening of its Oklahoma site.

---