- Qualcomm currently sells AI accelerator processors but has the CPU market in its sights
- Sailesh Kottapalli’s expertise is in x86 architecture, not Arm
- But that didn’t stop Qualcomm from bringing him on board to lead its data center team.
Qualcomm, renowned for its Snapdragon processors that power smartphones and business laptops around the world, has made a potentially key hire as it looks to challenge the likes of AMD and Intel in the processor market.
The company’s latest coup is the hiring of Sailesh Kottapalli, former chief architect of Xeon processors and a 28-year Intel veteran.
Kottapalli joined Qualcomm as senior vice president in early January 2025, bringing extensive experience designing high-performance x86 server chips.
The move from Kottapalli to Arm
Kottapalli wrote on LinkedIn that “the opportunity to innovate and grow while helping scale new frontiers was immensely compelling to me – a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”
What makes the move significant, given Qualcomm’s reliance on Arm-based designs, is Kottapalli’s experience on the x86 architecture. His leadership could help close the gap between Qualcomm’s existing technology and the demanding requirements of data center CPUs.
A renewed push for the data center
Qualcomm had withdrawn from server CPU development in 2018, but now the company has revealed plans to develop high-performance, energy-efficient server solutions designed for data center applications.
This journey began with its Snapdragon when Arm alleged that Qualcomm’s acquisition violated the terms of its license. Although a federal jury sided with Qualcomm, Arm is seeking a new trial.
For now, however, Qualcomm has been expanding its presence in the data center sector, with AI accelerator chips under the Qualcomm Cloud AI brand backed by industry leaders such as AWS, HPE and Lenovo.
