Why Do Hyperscalers Design Their Own CPUs?

By Sally Ward-Foxton, EETimes (April 10, 2025)

SAN JOSE, Calif. – U.S. hyperscalers like AWS, Google and Microsoft have designed their own CPUs for the data center in recent years, investing hundreds of millions of dollars into their own chip designs. All these CPUs are based on Arm. But with other options on the market, what motivates these companies to spend the time and money on building their own silicon?

Arm’s infrastructure chief, Mohamed Awad, told EE Times that while cutting out the middle man and dealing directly with foundries does mean hyperscalers can cut out chipmakers’ margins, this is not the whole picture.

Click here to read more ...