The age of the data center being dominated by server CPUs from just two companies, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and (NASDAQ: AMD), is coming to an end. Arm-based chips, largely a no-show in the server CPU market until recently, are having a moment.

Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google announced earlier this week that it had designed a custom Arm-based CPU that will be widely deployed inside the data centers powering Google Cloud. Microsoft made a similar announcement last year, and Amazon Web Services has long offered instances using its homegrown Graviton CPUs.

"Gradually, then suddenly" is a good description of how Arm-based chips have found their way into the data center. There have been many failed attempts -- Qualcomm tried and failed way back in 2017 with its Centriq CPUs. But with all three major cloud giants now embracing custom Arm CPUs, the server chip market appears to be at an inflection point.

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Source Fool.com