Quick Note: The new AMD–OpenAI partnership underscores a simple truth: AI compute infrastructure is where the value is concentrating today.
AMD is locking in gigawatts of GPU capacity to power the next wave of AI, showing how much leverage now lives upstream, not at the edge.
Nuvia was born with a datacenter vision. But it made two strategic missteps:
The first pivot: Instead of doubling down on cloud and AI compute, Nuvia sold to Qualcomm in 2021 — just before the infrastructure inflection became obvious.
The second missed pivot: Once inside Qualcomm, Nuvia’s designs were redirected toward Snapdragon custom cores for laptops and phones — rather than the compute layer where real opportunity was emerging.
The result: years of engineering effort spent chasing differentiation that never materialized. ARM-based competitors like MediaTek proved that similar results were achievable without custom cores.
Now, as AMD, NVIDIA, Arm, and others capture the AI infrastructure boom, Qualcomm is signaling it wants to enter that space around fiscal 2028. Qualcomm itself guides that any data-center revenue wouldn’t start until fiscal 2028 (best case).
Had Nuvia stayed datacenter-first, it might’ve positioned itself for a far more lucrative acquisition, or even been part of today’s AI infrastructure race. But those windows don’t reopen.
The value has already moved upstream, and it’s moving fast.
This isn’t about hindsight, it’s about how fast strategic cycles are compressing. In AI, a three-year timing gap can be fatal. Qualcomm’s 2028 target shows just how long that gap can feel once the market’s already consolidated.