At the end of 2014, Qualcomm announced plans to enter the server market and to build an ARM-based server chip. For this purpose, Qualcomm Datacenter Technologies (QDT) was established, and the first 48 cores server chip were demonstrated for the first time in two years, and the Centriq 2400 series was officially released at the end of 2017.
However, since the release of the series, almost no customers have adopted their solutions. QDT's president, Anand Chandrasekher, has resigned in May this year. Since then, the department has been streamlined and layoffs have reached 280. Now, Dileep Bhandarkar, vice president of technology at QDT, has also left.
As a result, Qualcomm's server business basically has no prospects, but a Qualcomm spokesperson responded to the report saying that Qualcomm is still committed to the data center business and will not give up, the current strategy is to reduce the investment, and will continue to promote Joint investment with China.
In January 2016, Qualcomm and the Guizhou Provincial Government of China jointly established “Guizhou Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd.” (HXT) to design and develop server-specific chips for the Chinese market. The two parties hold 45% and 55% respectively. It is an important step for Qualcomm to exchange technology for the market. The first server chip independently developed by HXT has been successfully trial-produced at the end of 2017 and will be put into commercial use in the second half of this year.
