[News] Qualcomm to Acquire UK-Based Alphawave Semi at USD 2.4B

As per Reuters and other foreign media, U.S. chip design giant Qualcomm has announced to acquire UK-based semiconductor company Alphawave Semi at approximately USD 2.4 billion. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026.

Via this acquisition, Qualcomm aims at strengthening artificial intelligence technology development. Under the agreement, Qualcomm’s wholly owned indirect subsidiary, Aqua Acquisition Sub LLC, will acquire all issued and to-be-issued ordinary shares of Alphawave Semi at an enterprise value of approximately USD 2.4 billion. Alphawave Semi shareholders will receive an acquisition price of 183 pence per share.

Qualcomm is a globally renowned chip design company. According to data from market research firm TrendForce, the combined revenue of the world’s top ten IC design companies reached around USD 249.8 billion in 2024, representing a 49% year-on-year increase. Qualcomm, ranked second, reported revenue of USD 34.857 billion (for its QCT business only), marking a 13% annual growth, which was driven by the expansion in mobile devices and automotive sectors.

With its patent licensing dispute with ARM temporarily resolved, TrendForce predicts that Qualcomm will focus more on edge computing devices like AI PC in 2025, aiming to increase its share in the high-end consumer market.

Alphawave Semi is a global leader in high-speed wired connectivity and computing technologies. As the world’s fourth-largest IP company, it mainly provides IP, custom chips, connectivity products, and chiplets, which enable fast and stable data transmission with higher performance and lower power consumption.

Notably, Alphawave Semi has successfully completed the tape-out of one of the industry’s first UCIe IP subsystems on TSMC’s N2 (2nm) process, achieving 36Gbps die-to-die data transmission speed. This solution fully integrates TSMC’s CoWoS technology, delivering breakthrough bandwidth density and scalability for next-generation chiplet architectures.

Alphawave Semi stated that with this tape-out, it becomes one of the first companies in the industry to enable UCIe connectivity on 2nm technology—marking a critical step toward an open chiplet ecosystem.

The company’s UCIe IP subsystem, based on TSMC’s 2nm process, offers 36Gbps performance and 11.8Tbps/mm bandwidth density, with ultra-low power consumption and latency. The solution complies with the UCIe 2.0 standard and supports multiple protocols, including PCIe®, CXL™, AXI, and CHI, via Alphawave Semi’s highly configurable and efficient Streaming Protocol D2D Controller.

Qualcomm pointed out that its Oryon CPU and Hexagon NPU processors are characterized by high performance and low power consumption—perfectly aligning with the growing AI inference needs of data center and the trend toward custom CPU. The acquisition of Alphawave will help accelerate Qualcomm’s expansion in the data center market and provide key assets.

Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm, said that Qualcomm’s advanced custom processors are inherently suited for data center workloads. Both sides share a common vision of developing cutting-edge technology solutions and delivering next-generation connected computing performance in high-growth areas like data center infrastructure.

(Photo credit: Qualcomm)