Qualcomm has reportedly landed more than one ASIC customer, with a separate project for a US cloud service provider also taking shape, according to industry sources. The development follows reports from Bloomberg and other media that ByteDance, the developer of TikTok, is Qualcomm's first major client for its custom chip push.
At its last earnings call, Qualcomm said it had secured its first ASIC customer orders and would disclose more details at its next investor event. The company has not publicly confirmed the reports, but supply-chain sources say the news is accurate and that Qualcomm also has other orders in progress.
The move underscores a broader shift among mobile chip designers into custom silicon, a transition that has drawn close attention after MediaTek broke into Google's TPU supply chain. For TSMC, ASE Technology Holding, and its Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) unit, Qualcomm remains an important customer.
Qualcomm's ASIC team has been quietly advancing these projects for a long time, keeping them highly confidential from the market and even from hardware suppliers involved in the work.
When ByteDance emerged as its first major customer, it became clear to the outside world why Qualcomm kept such a low profile about its ASIC business. Working with ByteDance on ASICs requires strict confidentiality and careful handling of geopolitical sensitivities. ByteDance was rumored to have previously approached Broadcom for a project, but is now treading carefully with TikTok facing possible bans in the US.
It is still unclear whether the Qualcomm partnership will run into US export controls on chips to China. ByteDance is registered in Singapore and builds much of its cloud infrastructure across multiple countries, so as long as the final chips and racks are not shipped into China, it may not be affected.
Industry observers say Qualcomm's edge comes from years of acquisitions that strengthened its technical base, but just as important is its advanced-node capacity. Few companies can combine high-performance computing and high-speed interconnect design with deep supply-chain ties and sufficient advanced wafer and back-end packaging capacity.
After MediaTek entered the cloud ASIC market, Qualcomm appears to be the last major front-runner that meets those requirements. Sources also say one of the US's four major cloud service providers (CSPs) is working with Qualcomm on a project, though repeated delays mean that results may not emerge anytime soon.
Even so, Qualcomm has already moved into the cloud ASIC market alongside MediaTek, backed by its technology and production capacity. CEO Cristiano Amon's comments on the topic during Computex 2026 next week will draw close attention.
Article translated by Lily Hess and edited by Jack Wu
